Deputy Minister’s attempt to gag ‘The Star’ fails
PUBLIC Works and Infrastructure Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts has withdrawn an application for a court interdict against The Star on the eve of the matter serving before the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg.
In what was seen as an attempt to gag the media, Swarts had approached the court to stop the publication from publishing a story containing allegations by a businessman, known to The Star, that the deputy minister had swindled him out of money in 2013.
The order, granted by Judge Unterhalter, read: “Having read the papers and considered the matter, it is ordered by agreement between the parties: 1. The application is withdrawn. 2. The applicant shall pay the first and second respondents’ costs, including the costs consequent upon the employment of two counsel, on the party and party scale.” Swarts based her seeking the interdict on questions sent to her by The Star journalist on April 8.
The journalist sent detailed questions regarding the allegations to the deputy minister and her legal representation at around 2.30pm, giving Swarts until 6pm that same day to respond.
However, through her attorneys, Swarts sent a letter to the newspaper complaining that she did not have enough time to respond to the questions and threatened court action if the story was published the next day.
The journalist and the paper obliged and gave the minister an extra 24 hours for her to consider the questions, the new deadline being April 9 at 6pm. Her attorney responded with a letter confirming that they would respond the next day.
The letter sent to the newspaper on April 8 read: “Dear Sirs, our client: Bernice Swarts/Questions from The Star newspaper of today, April 8, 2024.
“As per our telephonic discussion with your Mashudu Sadike and our Duduzile Makhaza at 4.10pm.
“You have since addressed the question to our office as the questions were sent to our client on or about 2.30pm. You confirmed that you would not be publishing the article against our client today and further you will be provided with a response to your questions by 6pm tomorrow, April 9.”
Despite this confirmation, the response did not come the next day. Instead, when the journalist reminded them of the 6pm deadline the deputy minister’s legal representatives served the newspaper with a motion to interdict the story from coming out with a court date of April 16.
The Star responded by filing answering affidavits with the court. On Monday night, the deputy minister withdrew through The Star’s legal representative.
The motion, on an urgent basis, read in part: “To interdict the first respondent from publishing defamatory allegations about the applicant (Swarts), inter alia, provision for a restrained order prohibiting the first respondent (The Star) from utilising any of its newspaper platforms and/or any other social media platforms.”
However, The Star’s legal representatives argued that the journalist had merely sent questions to Swarts and was awaiting her responses as a right of reply as per normal journalistic standards.
The Star’s argument led to the withdrawal of the application. The Star can also reveal that the initial story that was attempted to be interdicted is still being pursued by the journalist who has re-sent questions to Swarts and has given her until 6pm for her to respond to the questions whereafter the story may be published.