The matter is scheduled to be heard on Monday.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has launched an urgent court application to force social commentator Anele Mda to take down social media posts which falsely link him to the murder of tender tycoon Wandile Bozwana.
Mbalula filed the papers in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria last week. The matter is scheduled to be heard on Monday.
Court action
In papers filed, Mbalula insists that the “false, malicious and reckless” comments posted about him by Mda “seem to suggest that I was directly or indirectly involved in the murder of the deceased [Bozwana]”.
The ANC secretary-general added that “the urgency of clearing my name in the public sphere should be understood in the context and backdrop of the recently sanctioned Commission of Inquiry by the State President into an investigation of the alleged criminal involvement of Members of Parliament, the incumbent Minister of Police, and several public figures who are alleged to have been colluding with criminal syndicates”.
“I submit that if the matter is not urgently addressed, [Mda’s] allegations may be perceived by the public to be interlinked with the recent allegations by the KZN police commissioner [Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi],” Mblula said.
Murder
Bozwana, who Mbalula describes as a “friend”, died in a hail of bullets along Garsfonte Road in Pretoria on 2 October 2015, while driving with business associate Mpho Baloy Baloyi, who survived the attack.
Notorious taxi boss Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela and his three co-accused – Sipho Patrick Hudla, Robert Mutapa and Bonginkosi Khumalo – were each sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder last year.
ALSO READ: Mamelodi taxi boss and co-accused found guilty of Wandile Bozwana’s murder
Opposing legal action
Mda is strongly opposing that legal action, arguing that it is not urgent and is driven by Mbalula’s unhappiness over her reventilating allegations about Bozwana’s murder that have been in the public domain for years – and which he never sued any publication over.
She referred to an article in The Citizen in 2019 that said police had identified Mbalula as a “person of interest” in Bozwana’s killing.
Interest in Mbalula
The reason for police’s interest in Mbalula, who was alleged to have been in Pretoria When Bozwana was gunned down, relates to phone calls made to one of the murder suspects, Vusi Mathibela, police revealed to the publication. Mbalula reportedly contacted Mathibela on the day of Bozwana’s murder.”
Exclusive information revealed to Sunday World showed that Mbalula had met up with Bozwana two days before his murder, which was confirmed by Bozwana’s colleague Baloyi.
One of the police officers working on the case, Major-General Vincent Leshabane, revealed in an affidavit that Mbalula had contacted him later in 2015 and promised to hand over Mathibela after a warrant for his arrest was issued.
This was never fulfilled, and Mathibela was arrested after handing himself in at the Brooklyn police station, following damning CCTV footage that positively identified him.
Police believed that Mbalula could have been potentially helpful in solving the case.
ALSO READ: Four deny guilt in Wandile Bozwana killing
No evidence
In his papers, Mbalula argued that this response makes it clear Mda has no real evidence to support her accusations against him, and has described how, on the day of Bozwana’s murder, he was officiating the first annual National Recreation Day in Tshwane as Sports Minister, which was publicised in the media,” News24 reported.
“Consequently, [Mda’s] reliance on me being anywhere close to the vicinity of the crime scene is refuted by information that is in the public domain,” he said.
“Further, [Mda] makes sweeping statements that, two days before the unfortunate murder of the deceased, I was allegedly with the deceased and one of the deceased’s convicted murderers at Emperor’s Palace. [She] attaches no proof of this purported meeting, which never took place as alleged,” he added.
Mbalula maintains Mda has not produced any evidence to support her claim that he had had a fallout with Bozwana and had been indebted to him.
ALSO READ: Defence’s demands slammed in Wandile Bozwana murder trial
