Former minister of sports, arts and culture Zizi Kodwa has applied for an urgent court interdict to gag social media influencer Lerato Tlale from calling him a rapist.
Kodwa filed the interdict application in the Johannesburg High Court last week after failing to bar Tlale from branding him plunderer, saying the allegations are spurious and dama-ging to his reputation.
In the application that Sunday World has seen, Kodwa, said Tlale has been using her social media to post and publish defamatory statements about him.
Kodwa, a member of the ANC national executive committee, said the defamatory content continues to injure and tarnish his reputation and his good name, both in the eyes of the public and his career as a senior politician.
“This ongoing prejudice against the applicant’s reputation and name will continue for as long as the relief sought by the applicant is not granted and the applicant’s rights to his dignity, good name and reputation will continue to be harmed and he will have no other probable remedy and alternative relief against the respondent,” he stated in the application.
Kodwa pleaded with the court to grant him the injunction to bar Tlale from soiling his image further.
“Second, an order declaring that the applicant’s right to dignity, in particular his right to good name and reputation has been unlawfully infringed by the respondent, who continuously publishes defamatory statements concerning the applicant on the internet and her social media page to the effect that the applicant is a rapist; and that the respondent is interdicted and restrained from posting any material or text of whatever nature or in whatever form on social media pertaining to the applicant,” reads the application.
Kodwa also wants an order to interdict and restrain Tlale from sharing any information of whatever nature on social media or any public platform relating to him. He also seeks an order to force her to remove all postings, inclusive of pictures, and any material she posted on social media or any public platform relating to him and his family.
He also wants Tlale to be interdicted from transmitting in whatever format his personal information. “(An order) ordering that all prayers above operate as an interim order pending a final order being made on the return day of the rule nisi to be determined by the registrar of this honourable court,” reads the application.
The former deputy minister of state security also prays for an order decreeing that a rule nisi be issued calling upon Tlale to appear and show cause on a date determined by the court why a final order should not be granted.
“That the respondent be directed to pay the costs of application on an attorney and own client scale,” reads the application.
It is not clear what triggered Tlale’s tirade, but Kodwa was accused of rape by an unnamed woman six years ago. However, the alleged victim withdrew the charge against him.
