The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
a) I have been informed that from the records and to the best of our knowledge, in the last five years, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure is aware of one case of alleged sexual harassment against some of its participants.
The case was reported in August 2018 and involved female participants who were part of the Thaba Tshwane project that was implemented by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.
It was alleged that the participants were being harassed by employees of the contractor on site.
No other cases of have been reported to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure from programme implementers.
It is expected that any cases of sexual harassment should be dealt with in terms of existing laws by the project implementers.
b) In the instance of the reported case, a letter was written to the contractor on the project informing them about the allegations in order to ensure that this was dealt with on site in terms of taking action against the perpetrators.
In terms of the existing institutional arrangements for the EPWP, any transgression happening at an implementation level should be dealt with at an operational levels by public bodies implementing EPWP Projects.
It should be noted that the rights against sexual harassment in the workplace are set out in the Labour Relations Act and Employment Equity Act. A Code of Good Practice on the Handling of Sexual Harassment Cases has been issued by the Department of Employment and Labour. In this Code, employers are encouraged to develop and implement policies on sexual harassment.