The National Prosecution Authority has dropped sexual assault charges against former ANC Western Cape chairperson Marius Fransman at a the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court.
Marius Fransman was charged for allegedly sexually assaulting his former personal assistant Louisa Wynand in 2016.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said lawyers for Fransman and Louisa Wynand met and decided that all charges be withdrawn.
“All the parties that were involved in the matter, they got together and reached an agreement that all the charges should be withdrawn.”
The offences were alleged to have taken place at a hotel in Kimberley, in the Western Cape and in Rustenburg, North West when Fransman and his team were en route to the ANC’s January 8 celebrations in Rustenburg that year.
A case was opened shortly after and a few months later, Fransman was suspended from the ANC for five years after the party’s national disciplinary committee found him guilty of two charges of misconduct.
The charged member showed no political understanding of one of the fundamental objectives of the ANC viz, the support for and advancement of women’s emancipation,” the disciplinary committee said in a statement at the time.
Fransman maintained that he is innocent throughout.
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