<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-single-headline">
EFF’s Mandisa says she fought ‘racist’ KPMG </h1>
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Austil Mathebula </div>
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<img src="http://citizen.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/02/sopa6.jpg?8e1727" alt="EFF MPL member Mandisa Mashego. Picture: Refilwe Modise" class="gmail-img-responsive">
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EFF MPL member Mandisa Mashego. Picture: Refilwe Modise </p>
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<h2 class="gmail-single-excerpt">
The deputy chairperson of the EFF in Gauteng says
she fought against her colleagues’ language assumptions and ‘won’
without having mass support. </h2>
<p>In the wake of a heightened awareness about language policy being
interpreted as “racism”, the deputy chairperson of the Economic Freedom
Fighters (EFF) in Gauteng, Mandisa Mashego, took to Twitter to discuss
what was in her opinion a racist experience when she worked for
international consultancy and audit firm KPMG.</p>
<p>Mashego alleges the auditing firm “told us” not to speak in African
languages. KPMG is one of the country’s big four auditors, along with
Deloitte, EY and PwC. The outspoken member of the EFF claims to have
fought against KPMG on the alleged discrimination incident, and won.</p>
<p>Our many attempts all day to get hold of a spokesperson at KPMG were unsuccessful.</p>
<p>Mashego lists a number of major companies on her CV, as she worked at
both Telkom and Vodacom in a managerial capacity before becoming the
EFF’s caucus leader in the Gauteng legislature. She was a corporate
affairs manager at Transnet a few years after her stint as a project
manager of customer relationship management and internal communications
at KPMG, which she says employed her between 2005 and 2006.</p>
<p>When <em>The Citizen</em> finally got hold of her for comment,
Mashego, who says she fights racism and patriarchy, said she could not
stay long at her KPMG job because she refused to “compromise her
principles when it comes to the issue of racism”. She alleges one of her
colleagues at KPMG complained that they could not understand African
languages, and English, as a “business language”, should be the only
language used.</p>
<p>“There was a complaint from one white person that we were not allowed
to speak in isiZulu and Setswana. I told them I will speak in any
language I want.”</p>
<p>Upon hearing this, the now EFF member called a meeting, to which she also “summoned” the firm’s CEO, who did not attend.</p>
<p>“In the meeting, I told them that if they are not comfortable with my
language, it means they are also not comfortable with my skin. To say
English is a business language is not correct.</p>
<p>“There was a lot of racism there. They undermined black people, more especially black women.</p>
<p>“There’s a constant attack on on black employees. You are constantly
monitored as a black professional, more especially black women.</p>
<p>“They are not going to tell us what to do in our own country. They
are the ones who should speak isiZulu. After that I resigned.”</p><p><a href="http://citizen.co.za/1269116/effs-mandisa-says-she-fought-racist-kpmg-over-language-policy/">http://citizen.co.za/1269116/effs-mandisa-says-she-fought-racist-kpmg-over-language-policy/</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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