DURBAN – The legal team for former president Jacob Zuma told the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday that a ruling calling the former president’s “enemy agent” tweet about ANC NEC member Derek Hanekom defamatory “gagged” Zuma.
Zuma’s legal team was applying for leave to appeal the ruling before Judge Daya Pillay, who made the original ruling in September. “Effectively, what Mr Hanekom seeks and what the court [found in its September ruling] is unjustified and a limitation to Mr Zuma’s freedom of expression,” said Mpilo Sikhakhane, acting for Zuma.
Courts usually gave more leeway in cases where alleged defamatory statements were made in a political context, said Sikhakhane, as insults and “robust debate” were part and parcel of the environment. This leeway was important, continued Sikhakhane, as it moved away from the past, where citizens were controlled politically. Hanekom was seeking to keep Zuma away from political debate, and the court had done the same with its ruling, said Sikhakhane.
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