Question posted in the General Law category relating to Gauteng
I am being framed for misconduct at work. Two females allege that I use my position to groom women for sexual relations. Yet, my engagements with them has never been implicitly or explicitly sexual. From my knowledge, nothng in my non-verbal or verbal conduct has in any way been suggestive. The encounters themselves have been very infrequent and frankly I cannot out my finger on the issue. No formal proceedings have been effected against me. The information is getting to me through gossip. However, I this has disturbed me emotionally and I do not know what to do.
Answer to the Question
Hi there and thank you for your question,
I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.
If there is no truth to the allegations (gossip), then what these people are doing is defaming you. You should take a proactive stance towards it and confront these gossips.
You need to tell them that their actions, in spreading false gossip about you, constitutes defamation and that you won't hesitate in suing them for your damages suffered as a result.
If you've read in the papers recently, there are many examples of defamation. e.g. Zuma saying that Hanekom is an apartheid spy.
Essentially, defamation comes down to somebody telling another person false news about you which has the result of that other person thinking less of you. The first person has essentially harmed your reputation and your character.
Also, your work should protect you from this conduct, so either take a proactive step yourself and confront it head on, or tell your boss that this conduct is causing you harm and that you need your boss to step up and protect you and deal with this gossip!
If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.
Att. Patrick
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Information provided by client
Answer to the Question
1) Suppose they have submitted complaints (Something I am not aware of presently) won’t my confronting them constitute interference of some sort? --> No, because you have not been formally charged with anything, and neither are you aware that any investigation is going on, so how can it be interference? With what? There is no process at present.
2) Can I communicate my displeasure through an attorney at this stage? --> Yes, you can, but I advise against it. It will just cause the company to "lawyer up" as well. Not good at this stage.