Inside the legal chess game: Mkhwanazi versus Mathibeli

Court asked to order removal of allegations

- By Setumo Stone and Bongani Mdakane

KwaZulu-Natal top cop Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has launched an urgent High Court application in Durban seeking to halt what he describes as a sustained campaign of defamatory statements against him by businessman Calvin Mathibeli.

In papers filed in the KwaZu-lu-Natal High Court, Mkhwanazi asks the court to declare that a series of statements published on social media, online platforms and broadcast media by Mathibeli are “false and defamatory”.

He further seeks an order interdicting Mathibeli from repeating or disseminating allegations that he is “a criminal or corrupt”, that he “abuses police authority”, that he is “captured by private interests”, or that he “issues instructions to kill persons in unlawful killings”.