A victory for the truth
RULING: NO EVIDENCE SUPPORTS EFF CLAIM PARROTING MADIKIZELA-MANDELA
Journalists Anton Harber, Thandeka Gqubule win defamation case.
Veteran journalist Anton Harber, pictured, described yesterday’s high court ruling against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and its spokesperson, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, as “a victory for all those who believe in the truth and in making public figures accountable for outrageous and defamatory statements”.
Judge Lebogang Modiba, in the High Court in Johannesburg, yesterday declared statements the EFF and Ndlozi made against both Harber and Thandeka Gqubule – also a veteran journalist – “defamatory and false” and “unlawful”.
Gqubule was unavailable for comment yesterday, but Harber said he was pleased and felt a sense of vindication. “We all know journalists have been under attack by a number of public figures making outrageous statements,” he said. “This is a victory for those who believe journalists should be able to do their work.”
The statements were issued in 2018 after the release of a documentary in which Winnie Madikizela-Mandela alleged Harber and Gqubule had worked for StratCom, the apartheid police’s notorious propaganda and disinformation unit.
Madikizela-Mandela made similar allegations before the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) in 1995, but they were never confirmed there due to a lack of evidence.
The judge said yesterday: “Ms Madikizela-Mandela’s evidence at the TRC does not attest to the truth of the allegations. On the contrary, it confirms that Ms Madikizela-Mandela herself could not confirm the allegations were true when she testified at the TRC and that she had no evidence confirming that the allegations are true.”
During proceedings the EFF and Ndlozi denied they had called Harber and Gqubule “StratCom journalists”, but the judge yesterday found this was “disingenuous”.
Modiba said it was clear the statements were “prompted by Ms Madikizela-Mandela’s allegations against [Harber and Gqubule]” and that they advanced her allegations the two were on StratCom’s pay roll and “wrote stories during apartheid to destroy anti-apartheid activists, including Ms Madikizela-Mandela”.