Ekurhuleni Mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza’s R750 000 defamation case against News24 over reports on his alleged interference in a police investigation faces challenges, as a judge questioned the urgency of his claims and whether damages could be awarded in urgent proceedings.

Xhakaza has brought an urgent application in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg), seeking to gag News24 and journalist Sikonathi Mantshantsha.

The stories in question exposed how Xhakaza may have meddled with and tried to divert the police investigation away from a R1.8bn mobile chemical toilets tender, a scathing audit report which the city’s head of forensic audits, Mpho Mafole, had submitted just three days before his death.

They further exposed how Xhakaza was at the scene and had spent the night with DJ Bongani Mfihlo when he was killed at a Kempton Park nightclub in September 2023.

Xhakaza is asking for R750 000 in damages, a retraction, and an interdict barring News24 ‘from doing any interview or posting statements that say or imply that (Xhakaza) is responsible for the death of the officials of the city, that he refused to co-operate with the police or provide a written statement in relation to the investigation into the murder of Mr Mfihlo’.

But when the case came before Acting Judge Gary Myburgh yesterday, he questioned whether he could even order damages in urgent proceedings. ‘Damages are not urgent,’ he said.

Advocate Phumudzo Managa, for Xhakaza, appeared to agree with this view.

‘Well, it’s not urgent,’ he conceded, adding, though, that ‘it was included because of the Trevor Manuel judgment’ in which the former Finance Minister was awarded R500 000 in damages from the EFF in urgent proceedings.

On appeal, however, the SCA referred the determination of possible sanctions to another court.

Myburgh, however, seemed unconvinced. Managa also stressed that, as an alternative, they had asked the court to refer the quantification of damages to oral evidence.

Xhakaza has accused News24 and Mantshantsha of making ‘false and defamatory’ statements.

News24, meanwhile, maintains that: ‘The Media24 respondents have never accused (Xhakaza) of being responsible, directly or indirectly, for the murders of either Mafole or Mfhilo.’

Myburgh said that he could not find a statement to the effect that Xhakaza was a murderer in News24’s reporting. Managa agreed that ‘you will not find it anywhere’.

He, however, took the position that ‘you’ll find facts that make suggestions’.

Among Xhakaza’s main complaints is that News24 reported that he may have interfered with police investigations, citing a senior police official as a source. Managa said he was ‘taken aback’ by the publication’s refusal to disclose the identity of the police source.

Myburgh suggested to him that the source ‘may also not want his name disclosed’ – pointing to the risks this could entail.

‘If you want to be a police officer, you have to put your life on the line,’ Managa responded.

Full News24 report