Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s adviser, Keith Khoza, has become the victim of the raging war between his lawyer and his boss’s ex-lover, Norma Mbatha.
Mbatha, who broke up with Mashatile recently, applied for a protection order against Khoza at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
In the application, which we have seen, Mbatha stated that she had applied for the protection order after Khoza’s lawyer, Kuvashen Padayachee, contacted Sunday World recently and demanded that the paper take down a story that we published last year.
The story was about Mbatha taking him to the Legal Practice Council (LPC) because he had obtained her personal information, which included her current and previous address, without her permission.
After the LPC dismissed her complaint, Mbatha said Padayachee contacted Sunday World and ordered it to take the article down because it continued to injure his reputation.
As a result of contacting us, Mbatha approached the court to obtain the protection order against Khoza, saying by contacting the media, Padayachee had violated the settlement agreement they reached that none of them should speak to the media about the matter.
Even though it was not Khoza who contacted Sunday World, Mbatha said Padayachee was Khoza’s lawyer, and was the one who drafted the settlement agreement on behalf of his client.
Mbatha said that Padayachee had pushed her to the edge after sending the letter to the Sunday World regarding the dismissal of her complaint at the LPC against him.
Mbatha said the settlement agreement had stated that they had to refrain from referring to or implicating each other in any posts, media statements or interviews on social media, magazines and newspaper articles.
Mbatha said she felt abused and emotionally drained after she received a call from the Sunday World when we asked her to comment about the outcome of her complaint at the LPC.
“I felt abused, emotionally drained, and harassed by both Mr Khoza and Mr Padayachee to the point that I weeped (sic) for two days, stressing my daughters. I keep being referred to as the deputy president Mashatile’s ex. All that has dented and continues to dent my reputation as Ms Norma Mbatha is but a shadow of another man,” reads Mbatha’s affidavit.
She said that she therefore wanted to appeal to the court to issue a protection order against Khoza because the latest development constituted harassment and abuse of power.
Mbatha had wanted to apply for a protection order against Khoza last year, alleging he was harassing her on social media. Khoza had also applied for the same order against her.
They then reached a settlement agreement, which stated, among others, that they should not contact the media about the matter, as that would be deemed to be in breach of the agreement. It further stated that the aggrieved party against whom the breach is committed may approach the court for relief.
Padayachee said Khoza did not violate the settlement agreement. He said the matter Mbatha is complaining about, was separate from the settlement agreement.
He said they will oppose the application when they appear in court on May 14.
