EFF welcomes Gauteng High Court judgment over Ndlozi rape allegations

The EFF has welcomed a judgment by the Gauteng High Court, after it found that a Daily Sun report accusing party MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi of rape was “unlawful and defamatory”.

The publication, in April 2021, reported Ndlozi was involved in a rape case. The article was published on both its print and digital media platforms. 

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Judge Stuart David James Wilson concluded the publication must remove the “unlawful and defamatory statements from all its media platforms, including its website, Twitter account, and Facebook account within one week of the date of this order”. 

He said the article interfered with the investigations. 

Grave harm

The EFF said the accusations caused “grave harm” to Ndlozi’s reputation. 

“This is another of the court’s damming findings. Daily Sun actually interfered with a police investigation by publishing a rape complaint even before police could put the case to an alleged perpetrator. 

This is a powerful and unprecedented judgment that actually benefits and protects gender-based violence (GBV) cases. Thus, it is also a big victory for investigations in GBV-related crimes,” said the party. 

Ndlozi sought R120,000 in damages, but the court has yet to rule on this. It ordered Media24 to pay costs.

“This is a big victory for the victims of GBV, the majority of which are women. At the time, the EFF illustrated clearly that there was no verifiable possibility that Ndlozi was at the location of the incident,” said the EFF. 

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“The EFF calls on Media 24 to comply with the judgment with immediate effect. We call on them to issue a public apology of the same publication degree as the defamatory statements. We call on them to pay damages and commit to practicing responsible journalism. 

“This judgment must never be weaponised to discredit genuine victims of rape and GBV. We must all unite as a society to fight against GBV, always avoiding the politicisation of matters of this nature. The media fraternity must always operate with the highest level of integrity, research, and verification, so as to avoid malicious destruction of people’s reputations in the pursuit of sales, profits, and breaking news,” the party said.