Businessman and ANC funder Sandi Majali on Saturday lost a desperate bid to stop the Sunday Times from publishing an article about his background, the newspaper said.
Majali, CEO of Imvume Management, the company at the centre of the Oilgate debacle, tried to interdict the Sunday Times from publishing details of his youth and photographs of his family home in the Eastern Cape.
Judge Thokozile Masipa dismissed the application with costs.
The Sunday newspaper said a judgement in Majali’s favour would have had an impact on the manner in which journalists were allowed to source information on public figures.
His controversial business dealings came under scrutiny recently after the Mail & Guardian newspaper revealed that his company had made an R11-million donation to the ANC after winning a state oil tender.
In February last year the Sunday Times reported that Majali had accompanied ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe and the party’s
treasurer-general, Mendi Msimang, to Iraq from November 9 to 17 2001, just two weeks before his company was awarded an allocation for two million barrels of oil from the Iraq regime.
Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya said after the court victory: ”The judgement augurs well for media freedom in South Africa and for the public’s right to know. The application was a bid to infringe on the media’s ability to do its job of inquiring about public figures. The Sunday Times believes the public has the right to know about a man who is a key funder of the ruling party and who seems to wield influence over key decision makers in our country.” – Sapa