MUNGO SOGGOT in Johannesburg | Monday 1.30pm.
THE Johannesburg High Court on Monday dismissed, with costs, the R7-million defamation suit brought by Liberian politician Emanuel Shaw II against the Mail & Guardian.
Deputy Judge President Monis Fleming threw the case out of court and ordered Shaw to pay the M&G’s costs, which are expected to exceed R60 000. Shaw’s legal team, which withdrew from the action, was not present. Neither was Shaw, who was suing the M&G for exposing his criminal background and characterising him as one of Africa’s most notorious rogues.
Shaw was attempting to sue the newspaper for R7-million for a series of articles on how he was given a R3-million job at the Central Energy Fund by his friend, associate, and former chairman of the CEF, Don Mkhwanazi.
Said M&G editor Phillip van Niekerk: “This is a vindication of all our reports on Shaw and his South African associates such as Mkhwanazi. Shaw did not pitch up in court because he knows that the reporting was on the mark.”
“What in fact our investigations revealed is an obscene waste of taxpayers’ money. It is an indictment of this government that some of its senior officials formed close ties with such an unsavoury and crooked individual,” Van Niekerk added.
Mkhwanazi was forced to resign in the wake of the scandal surrounding Shaw’s appointment, which triggered a commission of inquiry. Shaw’s contract was not renewed. Both Shaw and Mkhwanazi are the subject of a corruption investigation by the Office for Serious Economic Offences.