Forget about Johnny Depp – where’s the Ace Magashule defamation showdown?

Give credit where it’s due. In America’s legal system, they get things done.

In South Africa, things are slightly slower. However, it doesn’t seem to be the fault of the system itself. It just seems like our people don’t follow through.

When I first started writing for The Citizen, one of my first columns back in 2019 was a bet that Ace’s threats to sue Buyisile Ngqulwana would lack any follow through. Imagine my surprise in 2020 then, when Ace announced he’s still pursuing it.

It doesn’t seem like much has happened since then.

I also wish Nathi Mthethwa would have carried on with his defamation case he threatened back in 2019, because maybe he’d have been too preoccupied with himself to put us through his ridiculous flag idea.

In other words, as predicted back in 2019, the defamation threats made by our politicians gave the image of having a case without having to present the case itself. In other words, at the time, we were more likely to believe them without them having to prove anything.

This is an old tactic of using the authority of the courts without actually going through them.

After all, nobody knows that the gun isn’t loaded. Just seeing the gun being pointed is enough to make us think that the holder means business. And the gun wielder can know this and get the same results they want, yet if they’re caught, they can never be charged with the kind of charges they would have, had the gun been loaded.

As observers, the mention of taking a matter to the courts is enough to make us inclined to believe that the threat has credibility. Only now, it seems like making those kinds of threats are the lessons taught in the first year of political school.

Can we allow this? Should we let the courts become a political tool for publicity management which leverages the courts’ reputation developed over years?

We certainly cannot stop a defamation suit from being lodged, nor should we. What we can do is demand that any application lodged must be taken to some conclusion.

The whole thing with defamation is that it revolves around the public perception of the person who had their reputation damaged. The public is thus directly involved in the matter and since the defamation suit is a tool to establish financial recuperations, it stands to reason that it can also be used to establish reputational repair. At least, that’s how the political school is teaching and using it.

So how can it be that those threats of defamation trials are allowed to fizzle out without us in the public being updated. We’re simply left to wonder, but we don’t really.

I’m willing to bet that we’ve all since forgotten about and moved on from the Mthethwa and Magashule defamation threats. If you do remember them, I’ll defy you to recall what they were about.

Ace was touched by allegations that he helped form the African Transformation Movement (ATM), while Mthethwa was unhappy about being implicated in the Zondo inquiry.

If they were really unhappy about it, why haven’t we heard about the cases going forward? I can’t be sure, but as I predicted three years ago, some lawyer might have explained the process of discovery to them and what kinds of documents can be subpoenaed.

I have my suspicions that learning that your correspondence, bank records, and nearly all other documentation can go through the court during a trial and, well, when that becomes public record…

We witnessed the excruciating private detail of the lives of two celebrities in the USA. Imagine how interesting it would be if we were to have access to the bank records of two South African public servants.

Yup, I’m not surprised these cases have faded out of memory after the threats served their purpose.

To paraphrase Bathabile Dlamini; I wouldn’t want my “smallanyana skeletons” coming out.