Ramaphosa’s interdict against Sunday Independent dismissed with costs

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has lost his bid to interdict The Sunday Independent and its editor, Steve Motale, from publishing a story about his personal life.

Ramaphosa in a statement on Saturday said the story was part of a smear campaign to discredit him.

He said that “questions put to him by the Sunday Independent – which have been circulating on social media since Friday” were illegally obtained and related to “private matters”.

He said that “the nature and tone of the questions” made it clear their aim was to discredit him as a person.

Ramaphosa’s interdict to stop Motale from publishing the story on Sunday was struck from the court roll of the High Court in Johannesburg on Saturday evening.

Judge Bashier Valley ruled that Ramaphosa had failed to convince the court that the matter was urgent.

It had emerged on Friday evening that Motale was in possession of numerous emails from Ramaphosa’s private email accounts possibly linking him to as many as eight different women.

The emails were either leaked from Ramaphosa’s server or were obtained through a hack.

His office has said they were not obtained legally.

Through acting spokesperson Tyrone Seale, Ramaphosa released a statement on Friday to say his office was “aware” of social media messages, “which take the form of media enquiries from a Sunday newspaper, that make various claims about Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s personal life”.

In his statement, Seale appeared to verify that the emails were Ramaphosa’s “personal email correspondence” and they were not lawfully obtained.

“There is no doubt that these messages have been circulated as part of a deliberate campaign to smear the person of the deputy president. They are a transparent attempt to distort personal email correspondence that could only have been obtained through criminal means,” said Seale.

The emails in question are not from an official government server but are instead from private Gmail accounts not obviously featuring Ramaphosa’s name.

Questions Motale posed to Ramaphosa would indicate the newspaper was asking the future presidential hopeful about alleged extramarital affairs with eight different women, one of them allegedly being a doctor who was also treating him medically.

Ramaphosa’s current wife, Tshepo Motsepe, is also a medical doctor.

The Sunday Independent also appears to have sent questions to some of the other women allegedly involved in the emails to ask them about their relationship with Ramaphosa.

The names of eight women were listed.

Ramaphosa later said in a personally worded statement that the fact he had given money to young women did not mean he was romantic with the women. His wife knew about the payments, he said, and they were done in the form of financial assistance for young students, both male and female.

“I will not comment in public on private matters,” he added.

“I do feel compelled, however, to respond to deeply disturbing suggestions that I paid money to several young women with whom I was supposedly in relationships. There are 54 young students – both men and women – that my wife and I provide financial assistance to on a monthly basis and have done so for several years. It is unfortunate that evidence of these bank transfers have been used to make scandalous allegations against me and, worse, to make public the names of some of the people assisted.

“We find it disturbing that the privacy of these young women has been violated through the publication of their names and pictures on social media. It shows a callous disregard for the rights of the individual.

“This latest episode extends far beyond an attempt at political smear. It represents an escalation of a dirty war against those who are working to restore the values, principles and integrity of the African National Congress and society.

Read the rest of his statement here: