Zuma loses appeal in Hanekom defamation case
FORMER president Jacob Zuma yesterday did not only suffer a legal setback when his application to appeal the Derek Hanekom defamation case was turned down, but he was also grilled for insulting his opponent in court papers.
Handing down judgment, Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Dhaya Pillay said while the former president, through his counsel, maintained that the July 25 tweet where he called Hanekom a “known enemy agent” did not mean he was an apartheid spy, it did injure his (Hanekom’s) dignity.
In the tweet, Zuma said: “I’m not surprised by @Julius_S_Malema revelations regarding @Derek_Hanekom. It is part of the plan I mentioned at the Zondo Commission. @Derek_Hanekom is a known enemy agent.”
This was in reference to revelations by the EFF that Hanekom worked with them to topple him (Zuma) as president. The judge said Zuma, in his court papers, insulted Hanekom instead of sticking to the facts. “Mr Zuma gratuitously insults Mr Hanekom as follows: I quote, ‘his entire life of a duplicity two-faceted person is an embarrassing lie’,” Judge Pillay said before dismissing the application.”
Pillay used the opportunity to call on the two men to deal with the matter through their political party, the ANC, instead of battling it out in court.
She said: “If South Africa could negotiate itself out of the quagmire of apartheid and into a constitutional democracy, the starting point should be no conflict is unsolvable. Such an approach could shift litigation beyond dispute resolution and conflict management to problem-solving.”
Hanekom welcomed the ruling, and said the tweet by Zuma that he was “a known enemy agent” caused unnecessary divisions and pain, and he was glad that the matter had been laid to rest. He said he welcomed the fact that the court concurred with him that Zuma’s statement was defamatory, and the ex-president conceded that he did not regard him as an apartheid spy and there was no doubt about his Struggle credentials.
“I sincerely hope this matter, which has caused unnecessary divisions and pain, can finally be laid to rest,” Hanekom said on his Twitter account.
It was not yet clear whether Zuma’s lawyers were going to directly approach the Supreme Court of Appeals or accept the legal defeat and move on.
Zuma’s lead counsel, advocate Daniel Mantsha, did not respond to queries from Independent Media on their way forward. However, all indications were that Zuma was going to directly approach the SCA about the matter, as by 5pm yesterday (Thursday) he had not removed the tweet from his Twitter account, despite the fact that he had lost the case in court.