The high court in Johannesburg has ruled claims that mineral & petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe received R40m meant for miners are false and defamatory.
Mantashe initiated a legal showdown against Zakhele Zuma, who labels himself as an activist for miners, this month after he accused the minister of receiving R40m meant for miners from East Rand Proprietary (ERP) Mines in 1999.
At the time Mantashe was the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) secretary-general. Zuma said Mantashe left the miners and their families penniless.
“I’m in the East Rand. You can see here I’ve got my mothers and fathers, they were working for the ERP Mine, and it was closed in 1999, but they never received their money. Gwede Mantashe was paid over R40m, but they’ve never ever got the money,” Zuma said in a video published on TikTok in May.
Zuma made the allegation after Mantashe was appointed as an acting president by Cyril Ramaphosa. The video gained media attention with articles published in Sunday World and City Press.
In court Mantashe argued the allegations were malicious and put him and his family in danger because “he lives adjacent to mining communities, and he interacts with them all the time”.
“The applicant [Mantashe] denies that he has received R40m from the said mine or any other mine. He states that the respondent [Zuma] is subjecting him to abuse solely to tarnish his name with the hope that he will lose his position both in the government and the ANC,” Mantashe argued in court.
Zuma opposed the application but failed to provide evidence in court.
“The respondent [Zuma] has provided no evidence — he relies on what he was allegedly told. The respondent requests this court to investigate the matter,” the judgment reads.
The court ruled in Mantashe’s favour on Wednesday.
“It is declared that the allegations made by the respondent about the applicant on TikTok and other social media platforms, specifically that the applicant received R40m meant for the miners, are false and defamatory.”
The court prevented Zuma from doing any interviews or posting statements about the claims which were unfounded.
Mantashe has been on a campaign to clear his name. He now has a case against former chief justice Raymond Zondo to have parts of the state capture report scrapped. The report recommended he be investigated for corruption. He wants the court to review and set aside the recommendation.
Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi testified at the commission that Mantashe was among the politicians who benefited from state-owned entity favours to political elites. Bosasa was awarded contracts by the state estimated to be worth R2.3bn. Agrizzi estimated that R75m was paid out in bribes.
Bosasa installed cameras at three homes belonging to Mantashe, including his properties in the Eastern Cape and Boksburg. He did not pay for the installation. Mantashe contends he was unaware the cameras were installed as a family friend, Papa Leshabane, who worked for Bosasa, offered to do the installations.
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