The Daily Voice news editor’s explanation for linking Onele Mfeketo’s shoplifting case to his high-profile mother, former Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, has landed the news editor and the newspaper proprietor in a R100 000 defamation action.
Documents on file tell the story of defence attorney William da Grass’s exasperation with the fact that virtually every news report in the Daily Voice about Mfeketo’s case linked him to his mother.
Da Grass is Mfeketo’s legal representative in the shoplifting case, which is scheduled for trial in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on June 23.
The defamation documents tell how Da Grass’s irritation caused him to telephone the newspaper and confront news editor Gasant Abarder about it.
But Abarder’s alleged explanation — that unless the former mayor was linked to her son’s case, the son would be ”just another monkey caught shoplifting” — landed Abarder in trouble.
Da Grass, acting for the son, alleges the remark was made with the intention to defame him, and injure his reputation. He alleges also that the remark meant that the son was ”dishonest and subhuman”.
The action cites Independent Newspapers, trading as the Daily Voice, as first defendant and Abarder as second.
Independent Newspapers denies the offensive remark, and claims Abarder in fact said: ”Then Mfeketo would be ‘just another muppet’ caught shoplifting.”
The claim, filed at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court, has not yet been scheduled for trial.
The word ”muppet”, according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, is of informal British origin, and refers to an ”incompetent or foolish person”. The word originated from the name for the puppets created for the children’s television shows Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. — Sapa