Lamola says Zuma support group lawsuit ‘fundamentally’ flawed
Justice Minister Ronald Lamola says the R5 million defamation lawsuit brought against him by the Gauteng Radical Economic Transformation (RET) Jacob Zuma support group is “misconceived.”
Lamola lodged opposing papers at the Johannesburg high court after MKMVA spokesperson Carl Niehaus, also the Gauteng RET group’s spokesperson, filed the lawsuit in March last year.
‘Thieves’
The Jacob Zuma support group approached the court after Lamola accused unnamed RET proponents of being ‘thieves’ while addressing an ANC workshop on land expropriation without compensation in February last year.
“These thieves that have stolen money now they want to claim that they are RET and they are forces that are supposed to serve our people. This RET that they talk about, which is a clear ANC resolution which President [Cyril] Ramaphosa is committed to, is not the one that you think is the resolution. Their RET was the one of looting state resources. It was benefitting them.”
In the RET affidavit, Niehaus denied that he and the other applicants had “stolen government money,” adding, “the respondent has no evidence to support his statement.”
‘Fundamental error‘
In his responding affidavit, Lamola said his remarks were not about Niehaus and his group.
Instead, the justice minister said, it was “designed to reclaim the RET from those who intend to hijack its legitimate objectives for their own personal gain.”
He further argued that the applicants had failed to meet the requirements for a defamation case.
“I am advised that defamation is about the impingement of an individual’s dignity – our law does not recognise ‘group’ defamation or defamation on the basis of ideology,” Lamola said in his court filing.
“In any event, the application is misconceived. Defamation is about the person and their individual self-worth. This is the fundamental error in the applicants’ case: they have assumed that criticism on the basis of their associated beliefs axiomatically means criticism of their person. Put bluntly: to criticise believers of RET is not defamatory.”
Free speech
“Rather, it is free speech that is permissible in a country where the contestation of ideas is healthy and encouraged to build a vibrant society,” the justice minister’s affidavit added.
Lamola also slammed “RET forces for appropriating RET, a national policy of government, to themselves.”
He said his comments were a response to public attacks on the state capture commission of inquiry from some RET proponents.
“At the time I gave the speech, there were groups and individuals who were claiming government’s efforts at eradicating corruption were an attack on RET. In particular, these individuals alleged that the cleaning up of the state was directed at those who intended to further RET.”
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