Two senior New National Party MPs were served with a summons in their parliamentary offices on Monday, relating to a R1-million defamation lawsuit launched by Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
The summons was served on NNP national executive director Renier Schoeman and his deputy Daryl Swanepoel for calling Leon a ”political swindler”, the NNP said. Another summons was served at the NNP’s Cape Town office.
Schoeman last month issued a statement headlined ”Tony Leon is a political swindler”. The statement referred to alleged donations by German businessman Jurgen Harksen to the DA and said it appeared that ”money laundering could have been involved, which would have been a serious crime”.
It said Leon’s ”personal involvement in the Harksen scandal has unmasked the real Tony Leon: a political swindler who may well have been involved in serious corruption”.
Swanepoel made similar statements in a letter published a few days later. Leon said at the weekend it was the first time in his 16 years in public office that he had taken such a step.
”The NNP leadership has crossed the line, the result of which has been to affect, indeed besmirch, my good name and reputation, and my dignity without substantiation, and with reckless disregard for truth and consequence,” he reportedly said. – Sapa