Johannesburg- UDM leader Bantu Holomisa and Lebashe Investment Group will on Tuesday square off again in the Constitutional Court as the politician attempts to overturn the interim interdict granted by the Pretoria High Court.
The interdict bars Holomisa and the party from “defaming” the company.
The high court’s decision was later confirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA).
The 100% black-owned Lebashe has a significant stake in banking giant Capitec and technology group EOH, among other investments. The company was founded and run by Tshepo Mahloele, former finance deputy minister Jabu Moleketi and Warren Wheatley.
The tiff between Holomisa and Lebashe began in 2018 when the politician sent a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, alleging that the company and its directors had conducted themselves unlawfully in various ways in relation to the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).
The high court in 2018 ruled in favour of Lebashe in the form of an interim interdict to the effect that Holomisa and his party refrain from repeating certain remarks they had made publicly about the company. Holomisa and the UDM then unsuccessfully appealed the decision at the SCA. Holomisa has now approached the apex court to overturn the decision of the lower courts. In his affidavit, the member of parliament argues that his rights have been infringed.
“The high court’s order imposes much more than a ‘temporary silence’. The interdict has meant that for nearly three years, we have laboured under an overbroad and severely restrictive prior restraint on our speech and on exercise of my duties and political rights as a member of parliament,” he said.
Lebashe has always insisted that its dealings with the PIC are above board and testified the same before the commission of inquiry into allegations of impropriety regarding PIC.
The company said in its court papers that Holomisa had failed to substantiate the allegations. “One searches the answering affidavit in the high court in vain to find such a basis. There is no evidence in the answering affidavit that supports any of the defamatory allegations actually made in the letter. The affidavit contains no evidence whatsoever that any of the respondents have been involved in acts of corruption, theft, fronting, fleecing, sapping, double or triple dipping, and misappropriation of funds, or any other unlawful, dishonest or improper conduct, as alleged in the letter [to Ramaphosa].”
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