Cape Town - Former Springboks coach Peter de Villiers is appealing a decision to terminate his membership of the GOOD Party which resulted in his dismissal as the party’s sole member of the Western Cape provincial legislature.
De Villers’s membership was terminated by the GOOD party’s national management committee (NMC). This decision was based on the outcome of a party disciplinary process that found De Villiers guilty of sexual misconduct and breaching the GOOD constitution and code of conduct.
On January 31, 2024, GOOD received a formal complaint of sexual misconduct against De Villiers. The party said the nature of the allegations warranted his immediate suspension from party activities pending an investigation and formal disciplinary hearing. The party has confirmed that the former Bok coach has lodged an appeal.
“Our internal processes do allow for an appeal against a decision, and Mr De Villiers has opted to do so. But we are not issuing another full statement on the matter at the moment,” said Janke Tolmay, GOOD media manager.
Party leader Patricia de Lille said GOOD has run a campaign against gender-based violence (GBV) for the past two years.
“We have invested over R300000, because I believe GBV should not only be spoken about during the month of August. We have been able to reach 12 million women across the country. And that campaign said, ‘speak up, don’t shut up’, and this message has landed on many women to break the silence around GBV, and what has happened to Peter de Villiers is that the case is before the courts and the rule of law must take its course,” said De Lille.
De Lille added: “We ran our own internal disciplinary procedures, where he was represented by his counsel, senior counsel, and the party was represented, and evidence was laid, and the outcome and the recommendations to the national management committee were dismissal,” De Lille said.
It is alleged that the incident happened while De Villiers dropped the complainant off at home after an event at the end of January and allegedly sexually assaulted her.
Countless attempts have been made to contact De Villiers. However, he could not be reached.
zolani.sinxo@inl.co.za