Sunday Independent won't publish pictures of Cyril’s alleged 'side chick'

Sunday Independent editor Steven Motale has taken a decision not to leak pictures and videos in his possession of one of the women who is alleged to have had a relationship with deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.

The deputy president was the theme of the paper's article published two weeks ago‚ alleging that he was involved in a number of extramarital affairs. He has strongly denied the claim‚ only admitting to one affair which he had eight years ago.

"Her lawyers wrote to us demanding on her behalf to make an undertaking that we will never‚ in all our official articles‚ use the videos in our possession. We didn't have a problem with that so we are not contesting [the application]. However‚ all material in our possession except for video and pictures‚ we are still going to use ... we won’t barge on that‚" said Motale.

He was speaking at the Johannesburg High Court shortly after the application brought by one of the women who is alleged to have had a relationship with the deputy president.

The woman‚ whose name is known by TimesLIVE‚ brought an application to court on Monday to interdict the online publication Weekly Xposé - owned by business tycoon Thapelo Kenny Kunene - from publishing the videos on its site.

The controversial businessman published an article last Monday containing the name and pornographic videos of one of the women. However‚ Ramaphosa is not in the videos.

Kunene said he could not comment on the nature of the editorial decision taken to publish the media files.

"I don’t want to go into the details of the case yet. We believe that this matter is not urgent and we have reasons that we have set out. We believe that it is in the interest of the public that these videos be left on the website‚ Weekly Xposé‚" said Kunene.

"We have done our bit because we blurred them out of respect‚ but at the end of the day as you may well know‚ people want proof‚" added Kunene.

The deputy president told Sunday Times two weeks ago that he believed state resources were being used to orchestrate a political smear campaign to stop him from contesting the ANC leadership in December.

Attorney Nomaswazi Maseko‚ representing the applicant‚ said that the woman has since been embarrassed by people approaching her in the public domain.

"We are here on an urgent basis to try and prevent people viewing this video on Weekly Xposé. What we are alleging is that she is identifiable and she's been approached by people that she doesn’t know who say: 'Oh you are the porn star'‚" said Maseko.

Judge Raylene Keightley has requested the media not to broadcast the proceedings on Wednesday when the matter will be heard.