By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Gauteng High Court has ruled in favour of African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Fikile Mbalula in his defamation case against Anele Mda.
Mda linked Mbalula to the murder of businessman Wandile Bozwana through a series of social media posts.
Bozwana, who was a close friend of Mbalula, was killed in a hail of bullets in 2015, as he and business partner Mpho Baloyi were driving on the Garsfontein off-ramp on the N1 in Pretoria.
Mbalula filed an urgent court application seeking to compel Mda to take down the social media post, arguing that the claims were defamatory and false.
Judge Selby Baqwa handed down the ruling on Monday.
The defences of ‘truth’ and ‘public interest’ are not available to a person who does not plead that what she published was substantially true. The respondent herein falls into this category.
“What cannot be denied is that the respondent’s defamatory remarks constituted an unabated assault on his reputation in the face of objective evidence of the killers of the deceased having been dealt with by our courts. This shows malice and ill-will harboured by her utterances, even in her answering affidavit,” Baqwa ruled.
Baqwa said in the circumstances, “it is abundantly clear” that the tweets published on a public platform were “unlawful and that they were about the applicant [Mbalula].”
“The allegations, made by the respondent on her Twitter feed about the Applicant, are declared to be defamatory and false. The respondent is directed to remove the statements, within 24 hours, from all her social media platforms, including the respondent’s Twitter accounts.
“The respondent is directed, within 24 hours, to publish a notice on all her social media platforms, on which the statements had been published, and is directed to unconditionally retract and apologise for the allegations made about the applicant in the statements,” Baqwa ruled.
Baqwa also ordered that Mda is restrained and interdicted from publishing any statement that says or implies that Mbalula was directly or indirectly complicit in the killing of Bozwana.
He granted a punitive costs order against Mda.
In response, Mda said the judgment was worrying, and undermined the public’s right to criticise public officials.
“We [she and her legal team] have taken the view that we will take the matter on appeal because we strongly believe a different court can arrive at a different conclusion,” she said.
The man dubbed Mamelodi’s number 1 Tsotsi Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela and his three co-accused — Sipho Patrick Hudla, Robert Mutapa, and Bonginkosi Khumalo — were found guilty of Bozwana’s murder, and sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment.