Mbeki sues Mail & Guardian for R20 million

SOUTH AFRICA - Political analyst and brother of former president Thabo Mbeki, Moeletsi Mbeki, is claiming R20 million from the Mail & Guardian newspaper following two articles he said were "wrongful and defamatory".

Mbeki instituted proceedings in the high court in Pretoria as he was unhappy with the articles published in 2013.

The first article appeared in January under the heading, "Survey sparks feud at Mbeki forum". The second was published about a week later and was headlined, "War of words".

Mbeki also instituted the claim against the newspaper's editor at the time, Nic Dawes, Times Media Group, which distributed the newspaper, and the journalist who wrote the articles, Mmanaledi Mataboge.

According to Mbeki, the first article contained a number of defaming remarks, which included that he had been accused by Prince Mashele of assisting Cosatu to suppress the release of a study to protect "what appears to be a dirty BEE deal with Numsa".

He said it was also wrongly stated that the release of the survey results was postponed just before the ANC's national conference in Mangaung after Cosatu told researchers it was "uncomfortable" about it.

Further, it stated the study found that Cosatu shop stewards wanted the union federation to form a workers' party, had lost confidence in the SACP and would like to see the country's mines nationalised.

Mbeki said the impression was given in the article that he purposefully suppressed the survey.

He said in court papers that the two articles were defamatory as readers would believe that he was a hypocrite in that he publically criticises the implementation of BEE, but that he had in fact benefited from BEE in what has been labelled as an alleged dirty BEE deal.

In claiming R20m in damages, Mbeki said the two articles injured his good name and reputation.

The newspaper defended the action and denied the averments made were defamatory, as it was in fact true and in the public interest.

It was further said that the comments made in the articles were honest opinions and based on facts.

It also constituted fair comment and the statements were based on reliable information received by the journalist who wrote the articles.

According to the defendants, the journalist, prior to each publication, took reasonable steps to contact Mbeki to put the allegations to him and to obtain his response.

His response, it was said, was fairly and accurately added to the articles.

Advocate Quintus Pelser SC, appearing for Mbeki, asked Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba to postpone the matter indefinitely, as the parties were due to meet soon to try and negotiate a settlement.

But Pelser said that, if they could not reach a settlement, the matter would soon be back in court.