Action South Africa president Herman Mashaba’s utterances that there was a corrupt relationship between city of Joburg mayor Geoff Makhubo and Gupta-linked company Regiments are now troubling him like a Black Like Me dye in the eye.
Sunday World learnt that Makhubo has slapped Mashaba with a total of R1.5-million lawsuit after he refused to retract the defamatory remarks he made on various media platforms.
The lawsuit was filed in the Joburg High Court last week and Mashaba was informed to indicate whether he would oppose the application. The lawsuit comprises three claims.
In the papers of the first claim, Makhubo wanted R500 000 for defamation because on December 12 2018, he told television channel eNCA that there had been a corrupt relationship between him and Regiments when he was a member of the mayoral committee for finance in the city of Joburg.
In the second claim, Makhubo said he wanted R500 000 more from Mashaba for repeating the same remarks on SABC News. He is also demanding the same quantum, in the third claim, for repeating the claims on commercial radio station Power FM.
Makhubo’s lawyers, Buthelezi Vilakazi Inc, said it took the matter to court after Mashaba ignored demands that he publish an apology or a retraction of the defamatory statements.
The lawyers also want the court to issue an order directing Mashaba to retract the defamatory statements and apologise to Makhubo.
Speaking to Sunday World, Mashaba sarcastically said he was proud of Makhubo for filing the lawsuit. “It must be heard in the urgency court because, by so doing, he would be expediting the process of his own prosecution. I’m happily looking
forward to those court proceedings.”
