OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday
LIZEKA Mda, a former Mail & Guardian reporter who wrote an opinion piece in 1998 critical of then-deputy president Thabo Mbeki may have lied to then presidential representative Parks Mankahlana about the author of the article, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Wednesday.
Advocate George Bizos SC, representing Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe, said there was “a high degree of probability” that Mda, who now works at The Star, lied to Mankahlana.
Mda and the newspaper’s former editor, Phillip van Niekerk, are suing the senior member of the ANC, accusing him of a gross, inflammatory lie.
Radebe told the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) last year under oath that Van Niekerk had written the article and had it published under Mda’s name. Radebe was making a submission on behalf of the African National Congress (ANC) during the SAHRC’s hearings into media racism.
Describing the article as an unashamedly racist piece of writing that contributed to a public sense of apprehensiveness about Mbeki, Radebe, speaking in his capacity as the ANCs head of policy, claimed: Of course, [Van Niekerk] did not say that the article was in fact not written by the black woman journalist under whose name it appeared, but by a white male journalist, and specifically, the editor!
He added: It is so obvious that so overriding was the need to confirm the racist stereotype that the editor was ready to throw all ethics out of the window. Accordingly, he abused a member of his staff to enable him to say that the alarm had been sounded by an African woman journalist.
Mda and Van Niekerk have denied the allegation, saying that the accusation has continuously caused harm to their image.
The court heard on Wednesday that some members of the ANC, including its national representative Smuts Ngonyama, had been told by Parks Mankahlana (now dead), who was Nelson Mandela’s representative at the time, that Van Niekerk had written the article. Mankahlana, who met Mda a few days after the article was published, claimed before he died that they had a “heated discussion” on the story and she told him that Van Niekerk had authored the article.
Mda has denied this.
Bizos said on Thursday that Mda may have lied to Mankahlana in order to get rid of him.
“Will you [the judge] order an apology if there is a high probability that Mda is the author of her own wrong, who in all probability lied to Parks?” Bizos asked Judge Joop Labuschagne during his argument.
Bizos told Labuschagne that if his ruling was in favour of Van Niekerk and Mda, then Radebe would make a counter-application demanding that the two apologise to him, and the ANC.
“… An applicant who seeks an apology cannot be insulting as well,” he said.
He said the Mail & Guardian should also apologise because Mda and Van Niekerk had insulted Radebe’s character in an editorial and opinion pieces. Van Niekerk had accused Radebe of being a liar, and Mda had said “a colourless piece of chewing gum stuck to the underside of a table was more enterprising than the minister [Radebe]”. She also said he did not know the difference between a Boeing and an Airbus.
Advocate Derek Spitz, who is part of the Mail & Guardian’s legal team, told the court on Thursday that this was an opinion expressed by Mda and Van Niekerk, and fell in the domain of legitimate political criticism.
However, Bizos argued that these opinions and the one on Mbeki were not based on fact.
“The law says that if a [person] defames he has to justify this,” he said.
On whether Mankahlana lied about what Mda told him, Bizos said that Mankahlana had nothing to gain by being untruthful.
The advocate said that Ngonyama tried to contact Mda several times before the SAHRC hearing to inform her that what she apparently told Mankahlana would be said at the hearings. The court heard Mda was on leave at the time.
The article showed, as the ANC’s other submissions did, that there was a tendency by the media to stereotype black people, Bizos said.
Advocate Wim Trengove SC, representing the newspaper, told the court on Wednesday there was overwhelming evidence supporting the journalists’ denials.
This included affidavits by fellow journalists who were at a weekly news conference at the newspaper’s offices where Mda said she wanted to write the article.
Some of the reporters advised her not to write the story saying her opinions were unfounded.
Mda also showed her article to the news editor and said anybody who knew her would have seen that the piece was written in her style.
Van Niekerk said in an affidavit that the first time he saw the story was just before publication. He said he did not alter it at all. Trengove argued on Thursday that the record had to be set straight because although the SAHRC hearings were conducted under qualified privilege, the ANC had continued to make the allegations publicly where this privilege did not stand.
Qualified privilege allows a person to make statements on evidence he or she considers true without worrying about defaming a person, such as a witness giving evidence in a court of law.
“There is still no reason not to afford her the order, all she seeks is that the record be put straight,” he said.
However, Bizos asked: “How will the freedom of speech be advanced if Mda can frame an order of court in her office as a trophy ordering the respondents to apologise if the court ignores the persons she seeks the apology from?”
Labuschagne reserved judgment.
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FEATURES:
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