On Thursday night when everyone else was fast asleep, former SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng and his lawyer threw down a gauntlet to veteran media practitioner Mathatha Tsedu, threatening to take him to the cleaners.
A letter, headlined “urgent” and penned by Motsoeneng’s lawyer Buang Jones of Buang Jones Attorneys, was sent to Tsedu before the crack of dawn.
Jones stated in the letter, which we have seen, that he was writing on behalf of the African Content Movement leader.
The legal eagle explained that the letter is based on claims that Motsoeneng was defamed by Tsedu on two occasions in two different media platforms.
“We have been instructed to address you herein at our client’s instance and request,” writes Jones.
“During or around 15 October 2023, you published in the Sunday Times an opinion piece titled ‘We had to break the rules to keep the SABC alive’, which post contained various scathing, unlawful, wrongful and defamatory material relating to our client.”
Same defamatory remark repeated
Jones said Tsedu also repeated the same defamatory remark against Motsoeneng on Monday during an interview on NewzRoom Afrika with news anchor Xoli Mngambi.
“Your allegations contain numerous false and unlawful remarks which have the sole intention of causing damage to our client’s reputation and dignity.
“By extension, they have also been made in an effort to disparage the good name and reputation of our client in both his personal and professional capacity, and to sully our client’s reputation within South Africa and internationally.
“These unfounded allegations have the impact to seriously harm our client’s reputation as he seeks to contest the 2024 national elections,” writes Jones.
He added that Tsedu’s allegations have not only prejudiced Motsoeneng but are also an act of bad faith, saying he should have been aware that they made direct reference to allegations of fraud and corruption for which Motsoeneng has never been charged or convicted.
“Given the spurious and defamatory nature of your allegations, our client will be forced to take all necessary steps to clear his good name and reputation, including but not limited to a defamation application against you, as well as issuing a statement to the media, should the need arise.
“Not only have you displayed a vested interest in and intention to defame our client but your engagements with third parties in the media have exacerbated the situation by allowing such third parties to further ridicule, defame and humiliate our client publicly, further increasing the defamatory effect of your post.”
No effort made to mitigate situation
He said Tsedu made no effort to mitigate the situation nor to alleviate any adverse consequences of his conduct.
“In the light of the above, we hereby demand that you immediately retract all media posts and/or pages on all media platforms containing any false and defamatory information or misrepresentations such as those elucidated in this letter.
“Additionally, we demand that you refrain from making any media posts and/or pages containing any false and defamatory information or misrepresentations regarding our client in any manner whatsoever.
“Lastly, we demand that you immediately furnish our client, through our offices, with the following in writing by no later than 6pm on Wednesday, October 25 2023:
- Confirmation that all defamatory posts of any nature whatsoever have been removed from all media platforms.
- An undertaking that you will desist from any future false, defamatory and disparaging remarks about our client.
- A written retraction and apology addressed to our client and shared on all platforms wherein the defamatory material was shared.
Read the letter of demand here: Hlaudi’s Letter of Demand
Jones said should Tsedu fail to do as he is told, Motsoeneng will have no choice but to take further legal action for damages on the grounds of defamation.
At the time of publishing, Tsedu had not responded to Sunday World’s questions. The story will be updated with his comment once he has responded.
