Trade union Solidarity has filed a defamation case against minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni over her statement earlier this year that the cabinet was concerned about misinformation being spread by the group and AfriForum in the US on farm murders and alleged white genocide in South Africa.
In March, Ntshavheni told a media briefing that law enforcement agencies were investigating violations of laws after Solidarity visited the US after an executive order by President Donald Trump who alleged Afrikaners in South Africa were subject to “unjust racial discrimination”.
On Sunday, Solidarity CEO and spokesperson Dirk Hermann said neither Ntshavheni nor the government had provided any evidence of the alleged misinformation.
In his founding affidavit filed in the Pretoria high court, Hermann said Solidarity want the court to declare that they have been “unlawfully defamed by the minister, as well as an order directing the minister to retract her statement and issue an apology”.
The union also wants her to pay damages.
“The minister had no basis to accuse Solidarity of putting forward false facts, let alone of deliberately deceiving the public and its own members,” the affidavit states.
“The minister’s defamatory statement was motivated by a desire to discredit Solidarity and to apportion blame to Solidarity for South Africa's poor bilateral relations with the [US]. Certainly, the minister will not be able to rebut the legal presumption that she issued the statement with an intention to impair Solidarity’s reputation.”
Trump signed an executive order in February cutting off US financial assistance to South Africa and welcomed white South African farmers and their families as refugees.
Hermann said Solidarity intervened for South Africa after the government had “caused a diplomatic crisis with its most important trading partner”.
Earlier this year, the Hawks confirmed it was probing four cases of high treason linked to disinformation spread in the US about the Land Expropriation Act. The cases were opened after complaints by political parties, including the MK Party.
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