On February 18 2019, leading businessman Sipho Pityana, then chair of mining giant AngloGold Ashanti, went to dinner with a female colleague at a restaurant in Mandela Square in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The woman, a senior executive in the company, subsequently claimed that Pityana drove her back to her hotel in Rosebank, where he allegedly held her hand, told her he was in love with her and offered to come up to her room.
In her internal complaint she alleged that Pityana's behaviour, one of four such alleged encounters, was inappropriate and made her feel uncomfortable.
Her allegations form part of a report, which though subsequently reviewed, Pityana believes was used to block his nomination as Absa board chair.
In a statement released on Monday, Pityana has denied the allegations, saying they were baseless and false.
While he admits that he had dinner with the woman on February 18, he said he never drove her home and that the investigator who made findings against him never corroborated his version of events, which his bodyguards who were with him that night could vouch for.
He further states that WhatsApp messages between him and the woman show that they continued having a friendly working relationship even after she claimed to have been made uncomfortable.
WhatsApp texts show that Pityana and the woman communicated on the night after the alleged sexual harassment incident.
One message from Pityana to the woman, sent on February 18 2019 at 7.20pm, reads: “Thanks for a wonderful evening and best of luck tomorrow.” The woman responded at 11.24pm, saying: “Thanks for dinner – always a pleasure.”
The two continued to communicate on WhatsApp in a cordial manner.
Details of the sexual harassment allegations and Pityana's responses to them are contained in a legal opinion commissioned by Absa Bank, which found findings of the earlier report against the business mogul to be flawed.
The woman claimed that in 2016, while Pityana was in New York, he suggested that they meet in his suite at the Mandarin Oriental over tea.
She insisted that she remembers “deciding that I wasn’t going to make myself too comfortable, so I stood for a period of time, looking out the window and observing the room while we talked”.
“I eventually sat down in one of the chairs with my outerwear on and my bag over my shoulder. The chairman [Pityana] commented that I didn’t seem relaxed and encouraged me to make myself more comfortable, stating that he doesn’t bite,” the woman had stated in her evidence.
Pityana's version was that he couldn't recall the meeting at the hotel in New York and that he had sometimes used his suites in hotels for business meetings.
The woman said while in Johannesburg, at a dinner that took place on June 5 2018 at No 10 on Second Avenue, Houghton, she again felt uncomfortable.
The woman stated that she noticed that the “establishment was very quiet and the restaurant appeared to be closed”.
She alleged that Pityana suggested that they have a drink first before going to sit for dinner in a private room at the venue, not the restaurant.
Pityana stated that he remembers that they had dinner in an open dining area on the night in question.
“There is nothing peculiar or untoward in my selection of this restaurant. It is simply a restaurant that I regularly frequent with friends, colleagues and members of my executive team,” he stated.
The woman also alleged that on another occasion Pityana had picked her up for dinner on November 13 last year in his car and then took an unexpected detour to the Northcliff Ridge Eco Park.
The woman said she was concerned about their safety since the place was dark but alleged Pityana seemed comfortable being there and during a walk through a narrow path, Pityana allegedly asked her to hold his hand to help him keep his balance.
Pityana denied that he ever took the woman to the Northcliff Ridge Eco Park, saying he would never expose himself or the woman to danger by going to such an area at night.
The allegations were investigated by a senior counsel appointed by AngloGold Ashanti in October and resulted in an adverse finding against Pityana. In December, Pityana left AngloGold Ashanti.
The legal opinion released in July, however, found the investigation conducted against Pityana “did not take account of all the relevant evidence in that its author failed to obtain important corroborating evidence from independent sources”.
