EC premier faces lawsuit over spokesperson’s statement
Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane is facing a R1m lawsuit after his spokesperson, Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, allegedly made defamatory comments about East London businessman Bongile Nkola in a press statement.
This comes after Nkola, who is provincial convener of the Eastern Cape Bonafides Forum, wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa in August accusing the Mabuyane-led administration of corruption.
The Eastern Cape Bonafides Forum was formed earlier in 2020 with the supposed aim of fighting corruption.
In his letter, Nkola asked Ramaphosa to investigate what he termed widespread corruption in the province.
In response, Sicwetsha issued a media statement on September 24 saying that Nkola had an axe to grind with Mabuyane because the businessman's funding application to the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) had failed.
Sicwetsha said Nkola's only intention was to get his hands on government contracts.
The East London businessman then decided to seek damages.
Mabuyane was served with a letter of demand this week, giving him 30 days to pay up or face court action.
He was also asked to apologise to Nkola and his forum, failing which "we will be left with no alternative but to apply to court for [a] declaratory [order] for the premier to be removed from office on the basis of being unfit and improper to hold such a
We have serious concerns because Mr Nkola is spreading lies, misinformation and making defamatory statements against premier [Oscar] Mabuyane
position ”.
In his release, Sicwetsha accused Nkola of being "a liar ”. Sicwetsha said the only reason Nkola was going on this personal attack crusade" against Mabuyane was that when he was the MEC for economic development, Mabuyane had refused to instruct the ECDC to withdraw the state-owned entity ’ s decision to cancel the jobs fund contract it had with Nkola ’ s business, Rickshaw Trading.
He added: "We have serious concerns because Mr Nkola is spreading lies, misinformation and making defamatory statements against premier Mabuyane.
“In his letter, which lacks accuracy because it contains fictitious claims entertained only by dramatic gossipers with no respect for truth, justice and good governance, Mr Nkola fails to provide evidence of his false claims.”
Following the media statement, Nkola instructed his legal team at Neville Borman & Botha attorneys in November to institute the lawsuit.
The letter of demand, signed by attorney Justin Powers, says Sicwetsha's statement "contained numerous inaccuracies and raises a number of points based on unsubstantiated supposition, as well as unwarranted attack against our client, as well as the dismissive tone and defamatory content ”.
It said the personal attack on Nkola was unfair because the letter to Ramaphosa was not written in Nkola's personal capacity, but in his position as the forum's convener.
Powers said Nkola personally had nothing to gain from writing the letter to Ramaphosa and it was incorrect that he had an axe to grind with Mabuyane related to any decisions that may or may not have been made by ECDC in relation to funding
He said claims that Nkola wanted to capture the state and its vault "are blatant untruths and made with no factual support ”.
While Nkola could not be reached on Friday, Sicwetsha said: "We received the letter of demand from his lawyers. We will respond to it legally. We will not apologise to him and we stand by the statement we issued. If he wants to take us to court, we will go to court. Nkola must stop trying to damage premier Mabuyane's reputation by badmouthing him wherever he preaches his false gospel.”