Ruling against EFF ‘a victory for the truth’ – Anton Harber

Veteran journalist Anton Harber described yesterday’s high court ruling against the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and its spokesperson, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, as “a victory for all those who believe in the truth and in making public figures accountable for outrageous and defamatory statements”.

Judge Lebogang Modiba, in the High Court in Johannesburg, yesterday declared statements the EFF and Ndlozi made against both Harber and Thandeka Gqubule – also a veteran journalist – “defamatory and false” and “unlawful”.

Gqubule was unavailable for comment yesterday, but Harber said he was pleased and felt a sense of vindication.

“We all know journalists have been under attack by a number of public figures making outrageous statements,” he said. “This is a victory for those who believe journalists should be able to do their work.”

The statements were issued in 2018 after the release of a documentary in which Winnie Madikizela-Mandela alleged Harber and Gqubule had worked for Stratcom, the apartheid police’s notorious propaganda and disinformation unit.

Madikizela-Mandela made similar allegations before the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) in 1995, but they were never confirmed there due to a lack of evidence.

The judge said yesterday: “Ms Madikizela-Mandela’s evidence at the TRC does not attest to the truth of the allegations. On the contrary, it confirms that Ms Madikizela-Mandela herself could not confirm the allegations were true when she testified at the TRC and that she had no evidence confirming that the allegations are true.”

During proceedings the EFF and Ndlozi denied they had called Harber and Gqubule “Stratcom journalists”, but the judge yesterday found this was “disingenuous”.

Modiba said it was clear the statements were “prompted by Ms Madikizela-Mandela’s allegations against [Harber and Gqubule]” and that they advanced her allegations the two were on Stratcom’s pay roll and “wrote stories during apartheid to destroy anti-apartheid activists, including Ms Madikizela-Mandela”.

“They conclude that by so doing, Harber and Gqubule were party to the destruction of lives and mass murder of activists by the apartheid regime,” Modiba said.

She said while the statements peddled Madikizela-Mandela’s allegations against Harber and Gqubule as the factual truth, no evidence had been placed before the court in support of these allegations.

“[The EFF and Ndlozi] clearly did not have such evidence when they published the statements … They do not explain why they did not verify the allegations prior to publishing the statements or even after these proceedings were instituted,” she said.

“On the contrary, their version before this court illustrates that they had no intention of verifying the allegations and that they had accepted the allegations as true, as they were made by a person who in their view has credibility as she is of a high standing.

“The standing of a person does not absolve them from the responsibility to back up allegations with evidence.”

The EFF and Ndlozi were yesterday given 24 hours to remove the statements in question from all their media platforms and to issue an unconditional retraction and apology.

They were also interdicted from publishing any future statement implying that either Harber or Gqubule worked for, or collaborated with, the apartheid government.

Harber and Gqubule were awarded damages of R40,000 each, and Harber said yesterday he would donate it to the Henry Nxumalo Grants for Investigative Reporting.

The award was significantly less than the amount initially sought of R500,000 each, but Harber said it was never about the money.

“We went to court to defend our names and to defend journalism,” he said.

Lawyers acting for the EFF did not return The Citizen’s call yesterday and it is unclear if they will appeal the court’s ruling.

– bernadettew@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.