Mbaks: court gags Mda

The High Court in Pretoria has ruled that social commentator Anele Mda's tweets implicating ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula in the murder of tender tycoon Wandile Bozwana are "false and defamatory".

- Faizel Patel

Judge Selby Baqwa said: "The defences of 'truth' and 'public interest' are not available to a person who does not plead that what she published was substantially true. The respondent herein falls into this category.

"What cannot be denied is that the respondent's defamatory remarks constituted an unabated assault on his reputation in the face of objective evidence of the killers of the deceased having been dealt with by our courts.

"This shows malice and ill-will harboured by her utterances, even in her answering affidavit."