OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday, 6.00PM
LAWTERS acting for Western Cape director-general Niel Barnard have served notice on African National Congress provincial leader Ebrahim Rasool that Barnard intends to sue him for defamation.
Barnard is believed to be seeking a R20-million settlement from Rasool following the ANC leader’s claims last week that the director-general accepted bribe money in the granting of casino licences in the Western Cape.
Rasool subsequently withdrew his remarks twice after Barnard’s lawyers wrote letters demanding a retraction, public apology and that he set the record straight. But Barnard rejected both retractions on the grounds that they did not fully meet his demands. “Rasool’s later efforts to explain the situation was, in Dr Barnard’s view and given his interest, too late and in all respects completely insufficient,” the lawyers said.