National police commissioner General Bheki Cele’s defamation case against the Sowetan newspaper was postponed in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
The parties were not ready and a new date had not been set.
Thabo Leshilo, who was editor at the time, said in a statement the case related to a graphic they used of Cele when he was KwaZulu-Natal’s safety minister.
The newspaper reported on Wednesday that Cele was claiming R200Â 000 for defamation over a picture, on July 6 2007, of him wearing a trench coat and hat, and carrying a rifle with the headline: “Police must aim for the head.”
The same picture was used in a follow-up article on July 16.
The article stated the police had shot dead eight suspects within 10 days after Cele said: “Police must aim for the head.”
Cele felt the “superimposed” picture portrayed him as a man of arms and painted him as a person with “murderous intent”.
This portrayed him in a false light and was humiliating and degrading, Cele’s lawyer was expected to argue. — Sapa