Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett retires from the bar following historic sexual harassment allegations

Respected South African lawyer, Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett, has retired from the bar following historic sexual harassment allegations.

This comes after allegations recently when complainant, Hylton White came forward and brought sexual allegations against Gauntlett.

White came out after the Anglican church had appointed Gauntlett to examine the activities of serial abuser John Smyth in South Africa.

The late Smyth is accused of having committed sexual abuse against at least 85 boy victims in various countries.

White, who is now a senior social anthropology lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand.said Gauntlett had “no credibility” to be on the panel.

“Gauntlett has a very particular role in my life. In my early teens, I went up the Hogsback peak with him. We talked a lot up the path and it became clear that he was an ally for my early refusal of apartheid indoctrination, a view my own family found contemptible. He told me about his defence of liberation fighters in court. I felt heard for the first time in my life. At a pool halfway up the mountain, he undressed me and gripped me between his own naked legs in the water. What he did behind me I can’t say.

“Then he sent me books of poetry in the post. In then-Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) during the 80s, I cannot quite say what an invitation to the wider world this was. When he came for a case in the city he took me to lunch then to his hotel room, where he had me undress so he could bathe me then have sex with me.

“Later I got to UCT and I still desired this connection. I went to see him defend MK people in court. I asked him for a reference when I lost my ID. I went to show him a hippy shirt I’d bought at the market. I met his wife Tessa, swam naked with him in his pool at his Constantia home, was groped by him while his wife was a room away, then finally threw him out of my residence room at campus when he dropped me off one day.”

He said he had informed the Anglican Church in South Africa of the allegations against Gauntlett to no avail.

“I have used certain private channels to alert the Anglican Church in South Africa to the fact that Jeremy Gauntlett is not of a fit character to assess this matter. These have been ignored."

However, in light of the allegations, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, confirmed that he had “accepted an offer” from Gauntlett to step down from the inquiry panel he set up to examine Smyth’s activities.

Meanwhile, the General Council of the Bar (GCB) indicated that it has referred allegations against Gauntlett to the Cape Bar and the Johannesburg Society of Advocates for investigation.

GCB said it was aware of the allegations levelled against Gauntlett.

"Allegations such as these are serious in the extreme and are of great concern to the greater South African public, the legal profession and the GCB," said the council.

sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za

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