A senior party official has been accused of sexually exploiting one of his constituents.

PRETORIA - After a week of violent protests related to its mayoral candidate, the African National Congress (ANC) in Tshwane is now dealing with a sex-for-jobs scandal involving one of its senior officials.

The Pretoria News is this morning reporting that the police are investigating a rape case opened up against the official.

Five people were killed and more than a dozen buses were torched in Tshwane during the protests over Thoko Didiza's selection as mayoral candidate.

The senior ANC official in Ga-Rankuwa, who can't be identified, is accused of sexually exploiting and raping one of his constituents.

The Pretoria News reports that his alleged victim grew desperate because she was poor and her children were hungry, so she turned to her local ANC branch for help.

It was then that the official allegedly started forcing himself on her and offering her jobs in return.

A trail of text messages between the pair appears to support her claims of a sexual interaction.

But the man has denied the claims, suggesting they were part of a smear campaign, linked to the upcoming elections.

The party says it will comment after it has established all the facts related to the allegations.