Holomisa claims court victory against Eastern Cape transport MEC Tikana-Gxothiwe

The Grahamstown High Court has dismissed, with costs, transport MEC Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe’s defamation suit against United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa.

Judge Gerald Bloem found the facts of the case did indeed suggest -- as stated by Holomisa -- that Tikana-Gxothiwe had an interest in the Mioca Lodge guesthouse in Cala which had been used as an official Covid-19 quarantine site.

The MEC wanted a retraction, an apology and R250 000 in damages from Holomisa because she said he defamed her by suggesting she was corrupt in a tweet he sent out in April. The tweet, which was headed “#ComradesInCorruption are at it again” stated she owned the Mioca Lodge guesthouse in Cala being used as an official, government paid-for quarantine site for patients suspected to have Covid-19.

Tikana-Gxothiwe denied in court papers she owned the guesthouse. She asked the Grahamstown high court to declare as defamatory and false his statements on social media and order that he retract it and issue an unconditional apology. She also wanted R250 000 in damages.

But Bloem said that although documentation suggested that the MEC’s daughter Kwakhanya Tikana was the owner of the lodge, mother and daughter shared a postal and a residential address in the Cala reserve – a fact that the MEC had chosen not to explain in court papers.

“The probabilities are that that (Tikana-Gxothiwe) and her daughter use the same residential address from which Mioca (Pty) Ltd conducts its business as Mioca Lodge.”

Bloem found for a number of reasons that the tweet was not defamatory. He said that even if it was, Holomisa’s statement that she owned the lodge was “substantially true” and therefore fair.