Judge Selby Baqwa said 'it is abundantly clear' that the tweets published on a public platform were 'unlawful'.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has ruled that social commentator Anele Mda’s tweets implicating ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula in the murder of tender tycoon Wandile Bozwana are “false and defamatory”, ordering her to remove the posts and apologise for them.
Ruling
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.
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Tweets
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.
Interdict
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.
Mda’s lawyer, Eric Mabuza, told News24 she intended to appeal the ruling.
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Twitter post
In her first disputed tweet to Mbalula, Mda posted:
“Wena igama lakho liyavela ekubulaweni kuka Wandile Bozwana (Your name shows up/appears/is implicated in Bozwana’s murder). The question still stands: what were you doing in Sandton with the guys who were driving the car that followed Wandile Bozwana and whose occupants shot and instantly killed Bozwana in 2015, around Menlyn?
“Awusitsheli lokho! Kwa wena ufanelwe yijele gha (you don’t tell us that. Even you were supposed to be in jail/jailed).”
Police interest
Bozwana, whom Mbalula describes as a “friend”, died in a hail of bullets along Garsfontein Road in Pretoria on 2 October 2015, while driving with business associate Betty Mpho 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.
The reason for the police’s interest in Mbalula, who was alleged to have been in Pretoria when Bozwana was gunned down, relates to phone calls reportedly made by Mbalula to Mathibela on the day of Bozwana’s murder.
Mbalula
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.
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