WeeklySA_AdminSilence: Seven unhappy years haunt a church female cleaner who rejected minister’s sexual advances
By Jo-Mangaliso Mdhlela
A Vosloorus Anglican female worshipper, who reported a case of sexual harassment against her priest, has, seven years after the fact, given up hope if she will ever get justice from the church.
Maria Mariba, a former cleaner at an Anglican church in Vosloorus, claimed her dismissal from her job was directly related to her refusal to “fall in love with the rector of the parish in 2018”.
Relating her ordeal, Mariba said in a statement: “Around March 2018, Father X (his name withheld) called a staff meeting to discuss cleaning issues.
“At the conclusion of our meeting, with other co-workers allowed to leave the office, Father X asked me to stay behind.
“During the conversation, the rector started moving his chair closer to me and touched my thighs, whereupon I expressed discomfort at the rector’s action and decided to leave the office.
“Sometime after the meeting, Fr X would from time to time tell me she loved me. This happened on four occasions, and on four occasions I rejected his sexual advances. “During one of the visits to my house, the rector told me he wanted to dismiss the parish clerk and then offer the position to me, only if I became his girlfriend.
“Not long after I rejected the rector’s parish clerk position, my colleagues and I were dismissed.
“I felt strongly that the reason for my dismissal and those of my colleagues, was because I rejected the rector’s sexual advances,” she said.
When confronted with these facts, the Highveld bishop, the Right Reverend Charles May, this week failed to respond to the publication’s written inquiries as to why action had not been taken to discipline the alleged perpetrator.
When asked if he would resign if a probe would establish he failed to take action against an alleged errant priest because they are alleged to be friends, May failed to respond to the question.
Mariba said she felt hurt and undermined by May’s decision not to institute a hearing to investigate her sexual harassment claim.
“When I realised Bishop May was not interested to take action against the priest who had sexually harassed me, I escalated the matter to the office of Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, the head of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa.
“On April 9, 2021, I wrote my first email titled ‘Seeking Help’ to the Reverend Dr Makhosi Nzimande, then provincial executive officer (PEO) in the office of Archbishop Thabo Makgoba.
“I followed up with another email dated April 19, 2021, with a copy to Bishop Charles May, and indicated that the matter had to be addressed by Bishop May because [as it was in his diocese that the alleged incident of sexual harassment had occurred]. Regrettably I received no response from Bishop May.
“On June 28, 2021, I wrote another email to Dr Nzimande copying Bishop May, expressing my pain and disappointment at the treatment I was receiving from the highest office of the church.
“To this day, I have not received any response from Bishop may. The archbishop’s office responded, acknowledging having received my email.
“We acknowledge receipt of your letter on April 19, 2021. This is diocesan matter that you should direct to your bishop. We are copying Bishop Charles in this mail,” Nzimande, writing on behalf of Makgoba, said in her email.
Mariba wrote back to Makgoba’s office: “It is with great disappointment that I write to you [Makgoba] again. Since my complaint about Fr X [name withheld] to date I haven’t had any response from Bishop May. “Clearly this shows that my issue is not important enough, while I acknowledge that people have more important pressing issues to deal with, I also need to be kept in the loop as to how my complaint is handled.
“And at this stage I have lost all hope in the church’s leadership handling my complaint fairly and open-mindedly. Anyway, I thank God for giving me the strength to speak up and not die in silence like many others in my situation who lacked the courage to speak up.” Mariba has also sought legal intervention.
Mariba’s lawyers, Nkosi Nkosana Incorporated, acting on her behalf, took up the cudgels, and made a last-ditch attempt to sensitise the church leadership to the seriousness of sexual harassment offences.
The lawyers wrote: “We address this letter to you [Makgoba]in the hope that you and your office will urgently look into this matter [sexual harassment] and assist our client. The plight of abuse against women will continue to persist if matters, such as this one, go unattended.”
Mariba also wants her unlawful dismissal and those of his cleaner colleague, should be annulled.
“Should it be established that my dismissal and that of my colleagues was unfair, we request Archbishop Makgoba to issue an instruction for our reinstatement as cleaners,” she said. The Mariba incident forms part of a wider complaint preferred against Bishop May, and accused by a section of the diocese of “running to the ground the church”.
The Canon 21 Task Team, chaired by retired bishop, the Right Reverend Jo Seoka, and instituted by Makgoba, sought to piece together bits of information to establish areas of weaknesses causing failures in the Anglican diocese of Highveld, which May heads.
“We have supplied the Task Team with SAPS case numbers, social workers details, and other relevant contacts. To date, these parties have not been contacted to give evidence to the task team, and so this omission impact negatively to the completeness of the task team report.
“This means that [the]evidence that could have shed more light on the conduct of Bishop May was not tested,” complained members of the #Save Our Diocese, a church movement agitating for the removal of May as diocesan episcopal leader.
A retired former senior diocesan priest, Fr Tom Amoore, wrote: “The report (Seoka report) is no much more than the application of white-wash over a dirty patch.”
A senior lay member of the church, Neria Madikane, said many in the diocese have lost confidence in the leadership of May.
“We have no confidence in the leadership of Bishop May. We have handed to the task team investigating his suitability a list of documents proving Bishop May is incompetent, but for strange reasons, Makgoba believes differently,” said Mdakane, a suspended church warden of the Anglican parish of Manche Masemola, Spruitview, Ekurhuleni. Madikane is also an influential leader of the #Save Our Diocese movement – a movement that seeks the removal of May from the diocese. “The findings by the task team have exposed systemic failure in the diocese, and lack of financial accountability.
“We are dismayed whistle blowers have been suspended, isolated, and discredited by the hierarchy led by May,” said Madikane.
The Anglican Aluta Continua and Laity in Action Movement in a statement said: “We are saddened that towards May’s last years as a bishop, only now has it dawned on the church leadership that Bishop May lacks the knowledge and sufficient competence to run the diocese, and should be mentored and trained.”
