'Zuma stole your money': DA cleared

20 January 2015 - 02:09 By Nomahlubi Jordaan
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DA flag.
DA flag.
Image: Gallo Images

The DA was not at fault when it sent an SMS to more than 1.5million potential voters claiming that President Jacob Zuma "stole your money to build his R246m home".

This was the majority ruling by the Constitutional Court yesterday, when it upheld an appeal by the party against an Electoral Court ruling that the SMS it sent out a few weeks before the May 7 election was "false and inaccurate".

The SMS read: "The Nkandla report shows how Zuma stole your money to build his R246m home. Vote DA on 7 May to beat corruption. Together for change". The report referred to is that of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who investigated the "security upgradings" at Zuma's Nkandla home in KwaZulu-Natal. Madonsela found that Zuma had benefited unduly from the upgrades.

After the SMS was sent, the ANC asked the Johannesburg High Court to order the DA to apologise and retract its statement.

The court dismissed the ANC's application and found that the SMS was fair comment. But the Electoral Court upheld an appeal by the ANC and ruled that the DA's claim was "false and inaccurate".

Constitutional Court justices Edwin Cameron, Johan Froneman and Sisi Khampepe ruled yesterday that the SMS was "designed to influence voters' views about the president and his party. It was not designed to thwart those who disagreed with its content from exercising their right to vote peaceably and effectively.

"What is significant is that the SMS does not convey a factual assessment by the DA itself. It offered those who received it an interpretation of a separate source . the [Nkandla] report, to which it directly referred."

Justices Dikgang Moseneke and Bess Nkabinde concurred. Justice Raymond Zondo dissented.

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