Court gags Holomisa

THE Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, gagged UDM leader Bantu Holomisa from allegedly badmouthing BEE company the Lebashe Investment Group and some of its top officials, as well as former deputy finance minister Jabu Moleketi, a non-executive director.

This followed allegations by Holomisa that the individuals and companies, which also include Harith General Partners and Harith Fund Managers (of which Moleketi is chairman), could be involved in Public Investment Corporation (PIC) corruption.

The companies and individual business people turned to court to obtain an urgent interdict against Holomisa and his party, the United Democratic Front (UDM) to stop them defaming the applicants in publications, broadcasts or on social media.

Judge Vivian Tlhapi granted the interdict and said she would later provide her reasons for her ruling.

The applicants turned to court after Holomisa wrote a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa last month on the letterhead of the UDM, with the heading “Unmasking Harith and Lebashe’s alleged fleecing of the Public Investment Corporation.”

The letter was also published on the UDM’s website and on Holomisa’s Twitter account, where he refers to “PIC scandal.”

Holomisa and his party, according to the order, has three days to remove the postings from social media.

Lebashe chief investment officer Warren Wheatley, said in papers before court that the letter to the president was intended to mean that the applicants were unlawfully and intentionally engaged in a number of schemes, fraud and conspiracies with the result that funds from the PIC were being misappropriated by them. He said the vast majority of the allegations made in the letter by Holomisa “are plainly false”.