Quinton Mtyala
THE woman at the centre of a job-for-sex allegation against the DA’s Bitou (Plettenberg Bay) mayor, Memory Booysen, said he had abused the trust she had placed in him, and she was going for counselling because of the psychological strain.
She has made a sworn affidavit with the police detailing her interaction with Booy- sen and what led to their WhatsApp exchanges.
While Booysen earlier claimed he did not know the woman accusing him of sexual harassment, he yesterday confirmed he knew her but that she was “a family member” who he had last seen in 2014, when she was still employed at the Bitou municipality as a library assistant.
“I did not have this communication with ‘Pumie’ because we’re related… There’s no ways that I would have such a conversation with her and I haven’t had contact with her for over a year now, when she left the employ of the municipality,” said Booysen.
He said the scandal was manufactured by the ANC to extort him and the DA. He had refused to settle the matter out of court with a lawyer representing the woman.
Earlier this week an e-mail, from a person using the pseudonym Maxwell Jamangile, was sent to several addresses, including journalists, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs, which includes a transcript of WhatsApp messages from Booysen’s phone to a woman called “Mpumi”.
Booysen was a former ANC member who left to join Cope. In 2011, he became a member of the DA after Zille went out of her way to get him into the party.
In the affidavit, Pumela Mnqaba says she worked at the Bitou municipality as a library assistant from November 2010 until she resigned on April 30, 2014 to further her studies.
That same year, she graduated and returned to Plettenberg Bay. In November, while she was in Cape Town, she saw the post she had previously occupied was being advertised, and she applied and was called for an interview.
When she arrived in Plettenberg Bay on the day of the interview, she was called and informed that the interview had been postponed.
Early last year, Mnqaba was called to another interview, but afterwards was informed the post had been frozen.
“The post was readvertised and I applied (and was) again called for the interview,” said Mnqaba.
She says in her affidavit that in January this year she bumped into Booysen in the Plettenberg Bay town centre, and he asked her where she was employed.
Booysen gave her his cell number and asked her to go to his office the following Monday “to discuss further employment arrangements”, indicating to Mnqaba that her job was still available.
Mnqaba went to Booysen’s office and his personal assistant told her to communicate with him through WhatsApp.
On January 15, she contacted Booysen. She first sent a “Hey” message at 2.24pm.
He didn’t respond and she sent another message at 9.06pm, calling him by his Xhosa clan name “Mpinga”, and he responded with a “Lol… hi”.
She then told him that she had been “looking” for him, while he allegedly responded in Xhosa: “What are you going to do to me?”
Mnqaba reminded him about their meeting in the town centre and that he had asked her to come to his office.
She asked him when they could meet as there was a matter she wanted to discuss with him. He agreed that they should meet the following Wednesday. He then told her that he was in Cape Town, to which she responded that he could have given her a lift.
But Booysen allegedly said it would have been “risky” as his “body would not have been able to resist her”.
Booysen’s conversation then allegedly degenerated into sexual fantasy; describing what he would do to her, while Mnqaba told him about the job she had applied for.
Mnqaba, who is also from the AmaMpinga clan, asked him to “calm down” unless he no longer followed Xhosa customs. In Xhosa customary law it is considered incest to have sexual relations with someone who shares the same clan name.
Booysen has denied he sent the messages and said during the time they were sent, his phone was in for repairs.
When
told the WhatsApp conversations happened at night, he did not respond.
Yesterday, Mnqaba said the incident with Booysen had stressed her out and caused her to be a recluse.
“I’m scared to go outside. This thing has caused me anxiety coming from someone who I had thought of and treated as an older brother.”
@mtyala