Equal Education leaders cleared of wrongdoing

GILLIAN KLAWANSKY

“This is not about vindication,” Isaacs told the SA Jewish Report in response to the inquiry’s findings. “I have given up public life. I am happy for my family that there is an outcome. I hope that Equal Education thrives in the new year.”

The independent inquiry was initiated by the social justice organisation in response to a media storm that erupted in May 2018, when the Mail & Guardian published a series of articles accusing Isaacs of sexual harassment, and Equal Education – particularly Achmat – of covering up for him.

Equal Education, it claimed, had created an “organisational culture of intimidation”. The independent panel’s findings were released this week. Its report focused on the claims levelled against Isaacs and Achmat, and contentions that the findings of a 2011 internal inquiry into similar accusations were biased in Isaacs’ favour.

In its 142-page report, the panel found no evidence to support any of these claims. However, the report did criticise the 2011 internal inquiry, saying that panel members could have “given more careful regard to those issues raised” and “could have been more open-ended in their recommendations to the board on further action which might have been taken as regards the organisation itself”.

The panel notably criticised the Mail & Guardian for “gutter journalism”. Retired Judge Kathleen Satchwell, who chaired the inquiry, was scathing in her criticism. “What has been published using words and ideas and information from anonymous persons appears to constitute an attempt to destroy good names and reputations without even a hearing or a fair opportunity to confront the substance of any allegation.”

The leaders of the panel did not reach consensus, however. University of Cape Town Law Professor Rashida Manjoo, resigned, distancing herself from the report. Among her concerns detailed in an email to Satchwell, and published in the report, Manjoo wrote, “This report reads like a judgement, and makes findings which include exonerating individuals – despite us not hearing the victims (by their choice)…” Wits Psychology Professor Malose Langa also led the panel.