THE management of a popular lodge has been accused of suspending a employee for wishing his white female colleague "Happy Valentine's Day". Management has confirmed that the man has been suspended but claims that the man kissed the woman.

The Legend Lodge near Mokopane in Limpopo is well known for its management of the grand Legend Golf estate.

The management of the lodge has also been accused of failing to act after a woman was allegedly raped by her white supervisor while on duty.

The married woman has fallen pregnant but says she is confused because she does not know if her status is a result of the rape or her husband.

The incident happened on December 9 and the woman is now two months pregnant. "I have to wait for the baby to be born so we can do a paternity test," she said.

Cosatu officials of the Congress of South African Trade Unions in Limpopo visited the woman yesterday. The woman has chosen to continue working, saying that her employers threatened to fire her if she insisted on demanding to be transferred to another branch. She said: "I come here every day and endure coming face to face with him all the time. For me it is intimidation of the worst kind. It is torture."

The woman laid charges of rape. The supervisor was arrested and released on R1000. He is due back in court in March. The 32-year-old victim from Rustenburg told police that the man took her from their place of employment to his house where he raped her. She said that the man also assaulted her.

She also said that she had lodged a complaint with management about incidents of sexual harassment against her by the same supervisor.

"I wrote my grievances against him before I was raped and nothing was done. Now when the incident happened I took sick leave for fear of the perpetrator," she said.

She said management had promised to transfer her to a Pretoria branch on condition she accepted a salary reduction. "The rape incident has also plunged my marriage into turmoil as my husband is now not sure whether he is the father of the unborn child or not. I am also not sure."

Yesterday, Cosatu's provincial gender coordinator, Toekie Kgabo, visited the victim to listen to the pain she was suffering. Kgabo said: "The victim was left to nurse her own wounds and nothing was done by the employer to ease her pain. Kgabo said the management of the company did not care about the safety of its employees.

"We are not satisfied in the manner in which the case was handled. It shows that there is unwillingness to protect workers because first the victim reported the matter to the employer and no action was taken against the alleged rapist," she said. Kgabo said they had also discovered that an African man had been suspended on Valentine's Day after he wished a "Happy Valentine's Day" to his white female white counterpart.

The lodge's Pete Richardson claimed that the victim did not report the case: "With reference to the alleged rape, we await the verdict of the court and will implement a full disciplinary procedure against the perpetrator."