Cape Town – Any unwanted conduct that impairs dignity, including comments about other people, winking at people, touching people and telling others that they are sexy, constitutes harassment in the workplace.
This was according to the director of employment equity (EE) in the Department of Employment and Labour, Ntsoaki Mamashela, who spoke during the department’s employment equity roadshow held in partnership with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Wednesday.
She said harassment was “any unwanted conduct (that) impairs the dignity of the person being harassed, not the dignity of the person who is giving the comments, who is winking the eye to other people, touches other people, telling other people that they are sexy”.
“Keep it to yourself. Leave it at the door when you get to the workplace,” said Mamashela.
“The courts have already ruled and there is one interesting judgment where the court said ‘a workplace is a professional place, it’s not a place for lovesick puppies that run around commenting on how sexy people are, leave it at the door’,” she said.
The 2022 National Annual Employment Equity Workshops are focused on the code of good practice on the prevention and elimination of harassment in the workplace, CCMA case law on all types of harassment and the 2021 – 2022 EE annual reports and 2022 EE online reporting.
Presenting the annual employment equity report for the Western Cape, Tabea Kabinde, chairperson of the Commission for Employment Equity (CEE), said the statistics for the semi-skilled population level were nothing to be celebrated.
“When we get to this level, I don’t celebrate.
“There is nothing to celebrate because this is really a reflection of the legacy of apartheid and it cannot even be celebrated.
“We can’t celebrate the fact that the lower you go the darker it becomes.
“It’s not worth being celebrated. We want to celebrate seeing the movement at the higher levels and then we can say we are really making progress towards economic transformation,” said Kabinde.
The department’s provincial head, Mawele Ntamo, told attendees the department remained committed to the agenda of transformation in the workplace and that the roadshow was an indication of that commitment.
“Let us tackle the bull by its horns.
“The statistics that are shown are uninspiring.
“They say a lot about the people that are in this room because everyone has the responsibility to drive transformation in the workplace.
“And I’m sure coming back to the next session we should see something different from what has been shown here today,” said Ntamo.
According to the EE reporting status of the Western Cape provincial departments and municipalities, of the 30 municipalities, three had failed to report three years in a row since 2019.
“I have spoken with the chief inspector to say by now you should have the list of those three municipalities that have not been reporting for three consecutive years, and he has committed that he is going to follow this one.
“A penalty which goes up to R150 000 (may be issued to the three municipalities).
“We are encouraged by the response from other government departments that they are complying,” Ntamo said.
Cape Times