Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO, says he is not aware of any new sexual harassment claims that have been officially been made against people working at the Randburg-based satellite pay-TV service or divisions like SuperSport, and that in instances where such cases are reported, MultiChoice will act on it.
Calvo Mawela addressed sexual harassment when the topic surfaced as a joint press conference on Thursday of MultiChoice and the Premier Soccer League (PSL) at the PSL head office in Parktown, Johannesburg where the PSL and MultiChoice announced a format change to the MultiChoice Diski Challenge competition.
Allegations and rumours have been swirling that SuperSport fired the sports presenter Robert Marawa in mid-May after he allegedly protected or stood up for an unnamed woman or women who work at SuperSport and who have allegedly been sexually harassed by their bosses.
After getting axed by SuperSport, Robert Marawa on social media said "Imagine paying for a service where people who are guilty of sexual harassment are employed and encouraged to work".
SuperSport didn't respond to a media enquiry from TVwithThinus asking about this in May following the axing of Robert Marawa.
A former SuperSport employee, Mmaphuti Mashamaite took to social media, alleging that a former boss is "a sexual predator", saying "I was painted as a loose goose, wild child. Just to cover for a sexual predator at work. I had three mental breakdowns soon after. I got less bookings. I couldn't talk. I can't talk still".
Calvo Mawela on Thursday said that SuperSport firing Robert Marawa had nothing to do with sexual harassment.
"It’s a very complex matter because we are dealing with a contract that was not renewed and then sexual harassment cases are being spread through social media. If there are sexual harassment cases that people are saying are happening within the MultiChoice Group‚ rest assured I will act there and then on such culprits‚ and act decisively on them."
"Let me be very clear on sexual harassment: I will not tolerate sexual harassment and I will act decisively on anybody who is found to be acting untowards‚ especially taking advantage of vulnerable women".
"So those allegations‚ unfortunately‚ are allegations that we have heard‚ that we have seen everywhere‚ but we have never seen anything coming through to the company saying this has happened, and unfortunately I can’t comment on those that we have seen circulating on social media," said Calvo Mawela.
