Mike Waters.
Sharief Jaffer, Gallo Images, Media24, file
- The DA’s Mike Waters has broken his silence on the sex-for-jobs saga.
- He claims Moodey has previously tried to tarnish his political career and personal reputation.
- Waters says that while the former provincial leader has escaped party processes, he will seek recourse in the courts.
Mike Waters, the politician at the centre of the so-called sex-for-jobs scandal, which led to Gauteng provincial leader John Moodey’s resignation, has broken his silence.
Waters, in a statement released after a DA briefing on Moodey’s resignation on Thursday, shared his views on the matter.
Moodey, the long-serving DA provincial leader, announced that he was stepping down as a member of the party on Wednesday, saying he could no longer align himself with the country’s main opposition party.
He also told journalists he had faced numerous intimidation attempts, which resulted in a number of charges being levelled against him by the party’s federal legal council (FLC).
READ | Moodey slams DA after exit
Moodey claimed the final straw was learning of the DA’s FLC pursuing charges relating to claims that he attempted to frame a senior leader, who was alleged to have sought sexual favours from two councillors for job opportunities.
Courts
Waters said that, as the victim at the heart of the claims, he would continue to seek justice against the former provincial leader. He would be taking the matter to the courts, as Moodey had managed to escape being held to account by the party.
“With his resignation, Moodey has escaped justice in the party, but not outside of it. I will be launching legal action against him for defamation of character,” wrote Waters in his statement.
He accused the former provincial leader of attempting to destroy both his political career and personal reputation, claiming Moodey’s resignation was about the charges he was facing relating to the so called “sex-for-jobs” scandal.
Earlier, Werner Horn, a member of the FLC, told journalists it had recordings to prove Moodey’s involvement in allegations of trying to frame the senior party leader, which came to the fore after the two junior councillors turned whistleblowers.
Waters said:
He targeted two vulnerable homosexual young men in a homophobic attack, aimed at defaming me.
Waters, who is also one of the DA’s deputy federal chairpersons, described the two as “brave young councillors” who refused to be intimidated by the province’s most senior member.
Cardinal sin
“As an openly gay person myself, Moodey allegedly committed another cardinal sin: He targeted two vulnerable homosexual young men in a homophobic attack, aimed at defaming me. He didn’t count on two tough young liberals fighting back,” he noted.
He said Moodey and two others wanted the two councillors to sign fraudulent affidavits, claiming Waters, who also serves on the Ekurhuleni candidates selection panel, tried to get the two to perform sexual favours in exchange for being ranked in electable positions for the 2016 municipal elections.
Waters and Moodey are said to have had a tense relationship, which the former alludes to in his statement.
He accused Moodey of having a long history of trying to undermine him in the party.
The deputy federal chair said this was due to Moodey’s “vehement ideological commitment to race-based nationalism in opposition to my well-known and strident classic liberal approach to principles and policies of the party”.
Horn earlier indicated that the DA’s FLC would pursue charges against the two remaining party members implicated in the scandal.
