Musa Khawula has 24 hours to apologise to businessman Tsabedze for making infidelity claims

The Johannesburg high court has ordered blogger Musa Khawula to remove X posts it found to be defamatory towards entrepreneur and CEO of Afrirent Holdings, Senzo Tsabedze, and publish an unconditional apology.

“The first respondent is directed to permanently retract the impugned statements from his X account under the name @Musa_Khawula, and from any other social media platforms under his control, within 24 hours of service of this order.

“Within 24 hours of this order, to publish on all of his social media accounts an unreserved apology to Tsabedze for the allegations made in the impugned statements, and for the publication of the impugned statements,” the order reads.

The order follows a series of social media posts in which Khawula alleged that Tsabedze was cheating on his wife with six younger women, one of who he claimed to be younger than her daughter. Among the alleged girlfriends are actress Amanda du-Pont, Luyanda Zuma, Yaya Lekhuleni, Pearl Ndlovu, Lebo Mokoena and Queen Embee.

Khawula even ran a poll on who deserved to be the real-life Jonasi of TV series The Polygamist, with Tsabedze named as an option in the poll. This series of posts ran from July 6-15. The order was made on July 21.

To date, Khawula has not apologised on his page, nor has he taken down the posts, after almost seven days.

The order provides that if Khawula does not comply within seven days, Tsabedze may file a contempt of court order and Khawula could be arrested. He was ordered to pay Tsabedze’s legal costs.

In a separate post dated July 2, Khawula said he would rather be imprisoned than be ordered to record a clip apologising. While the court has not ordered Khawula to record a clip, they have recommended how the apology should read by providing the text.

This is not the first time such an order has been issued in Khawula’s name. In October last year, lawyers for entrepreneur and advertising industry guru Groovin Nchabeleng issued a cease-and-desist letter to Khawula after social media posts in which he claimed Nchabeleng received monthly payments from alleged criminal Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.

Sowetan