Africa-Press – South-Africa. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has secured a legal victory after the high court in Pretoria granted a far-reaching gag order against Brown Mogotsi.
The Rustenburg businessman was ordered to retract and remove a series of serious allegations the court ruled were “false, defamatory and unlawful”.
The order, signed on Tuesday by judge Jacobus Strijdom, comes after Mbalula opened a case in October after Mogotsi’s remarks during a Newzroom Afrika interview. Mogotsi, who did not oppose the application, is now barred from repeating the allegations.
In the interview and online posts, Mogotsi discussed the 2015 assassination of North West billionaire businessman Wandile Bozwana. Allegations he made, the court said, had “no factual basis whatsoever”.
Strijdom ruled that Mogotsi had to:
issue a full retraction within 48 hours;
delete all related posts on social media; and
remove the allegations from any platform where they appear.
He is also interdicted from participating in interviews, discussions or future commentary that repeat the unfounded claims.
The judge emphasised that Mogotsi is “gagged from ever again speaking about this”.
He was found to be liable to pay damages to Mbalula, with the amount to be determined through oral evidence later. Mogotsi must also pay Mbalula’s legal costs on a punitive attorney-and-client scale.
Bozwana’s killers were last year sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment.
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