Buthelezi to appeal defamation ruling

Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi will appeal A Johannesburg High Court ruling against him in a case of alleged defamation.

"In our opinion, the judge was totally wrong," attorney Lourens de Klerk said.

According to the Witness newspaper Buthelezi lost a claim he brought for R200,000 damages for alleged defamation against the publishers of Business Day and its editor Peter Bruce.

Buthelezi had asked for damages, his legal representatives' costs and that the newspaper publish a correction and an apology for an article that appeared on June 30, 2010.

The newspaper quoted political analyst Protas Madlala as saying Buthelezi "has always been a violent man".

He was also quoted as saying: "Now, with just two weeks before he faces near certain challenge, Mr Buthelezi is again warning of violence. But this time not against his traditional political foes, but those within the IFP."

The Witness reported that Judge Nigel Willis ruled in favour of the publishers and Bruce, and that Buthelezi was ordered to pay their costs.

"The article can not be defamatory for a reason that is mathematical in both its simplicity and its lucid beauty: it leaves open the possibility that the prince is not complicit in KwaZulu-Natal's political violence [in which case there is no defamation] but on the other hand, recognises that there are those who believe that he is," Willis was quoted in the paper.

De Klerk said he thought the judge erred in finding that Buthelezi had not been defamed.

"Judges are also human, they can also make a mistake," he said.