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By Samkelo Mtshali 
1 hour ago
Johannesburg – Economic freedom fighters successfully appealed the North Gauteng High Court order to pay Trevor Manuel 500,000 rand in damages after two Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judges ruled that the damages award had been unjustifiably high.
The ruling was handed down on Thursday by SCA judges Mahomed Navsa and Malcolm Willis, who said the higher court’s order for the EFF to pay half a million rand to the former finance minister appeared extraordinarily high and was not in line with the recent general trend.
However, the judges rejected the EFF’s authorization to appeal the North Gauteng Superior Court ruling that his allegations of nepotism and corruption against Manuel were defamatory and illegal.
Navsa and Mohamed said the reasoning on which the award of R500,000 in damages had been scant and little attention was paid to how best to determine the extent of the loss of reputation.
They said that they accepted that when considering the reasoning of a trial in court in relation to the quantum, one must take into account what was said in the judgment as a whole. However, in the present case, Manuel was primarily concerned about damage to reputation, but had not provided details regarding damage to reputation that he had suffered.
“No details are provided of what the court took into account in relation to the extent of the damage to reputation, apart from the limited intervention of Mr. Manuel in the sentence,” reads the judgment of the judges of the SCA Malcolm Wallis and Mahomed Navsa.
The matter came to court after the EFF filed an appeal against the Superior Court ruling regarding the party’s statements regarding Manuel’s role in the appointment of Edward Kiesswetter as Sars Commissioner in March 2019.
In a tough statement rebuking the appointment, the EFF called Kiesswetter a “dubious character” and that he had ties to Manuel because they were not only related but also as business partners.
“The EFF opposes the nepotism involved in the corrupt process of selecting a new Sars commissioner. One of the candidates interviewed by the panel is an untrustworthy character named Edward Kieswetter, who is not just a relative of Trevor Manuel, but a close business associate.
“We are deeply opposed to the imposition of a candidate secretly evaluated by conflicting individuals. We will do everything possible to stop and reverse the appointment of Kieswetter. The EFF will explore all legal options to invalidate any illegal appointment of a commissioner, ”the EFF statement read.
The EFF declined to apologize after Manuel’s lawyers wrote to the EFF and Ndlozi demanding that they remove the statement from their social media and unconditionally apologize to Manuel.
Manuel then brought the EFF to the North Gauteng Superior Court suing for defamation and Judge Elias Matojane ordered the EFF to apologize to Manuel and also pay him R500,000 in damages.
EFF spokesperson Vuyani Pambo was not available for comment.
Political Bureau
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