ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu is suing SABC executive Hlaudi Motsoeneng for defamation – seeking R1 million in damages to his name.<\/p>\n
Mthembu lodged the legal claim after Motoeneng made statements during a live Business Briefing broadcast, alleging that Mthembu had tried to “capture” him.<\/p>\n
In the broadcast, Motsoeneng warned Mthembu to stop criticising him, or else he would reveal\u00a0details about a business transaction he claimed Mthembu wanted help with.<\/p>\n
Mthembu said that the allegation was rubbish, and challenged Motsoeneng to produce any evidence that such a transaction existed.<\/p>\n
“There is no doubt that Motsoeneng\u2019s claims are unfounded, unsubstantiated and blatantly false. The made-up accusations, aired publicly on live television, were intended to impugn the character of the chief whip.<\/p>\n
“Imputing improper motives on the chief whip was clearly designed to threaten and blackmail him and the ANC in Parliament into silence on a matter of principle with the hope that the inquiry into the SABC, which the ANC caucus has outspokenly pursued, would be abandoned,”\u00a0Mthembu’s lawyers said in a statement.<\/p>\n
He said Motsoeneng’s statements amounted to defamation, and was looking for a public retraction, an unconditional apology, and for the controversial SABC executive to pay him R1 million in damages to his name.<\/p>\n