New Zuma claim against Rapport
2008-01-17 18:31
Johannesburg - African National Congress President Jacob Zuma is claiming R5m from Rapport for defamation and injuria, his spokesperson Liesl Gottert said on Thursday.
This latest claim comes just a day after he reached a R50 000 out-of-court settlement with the same paper for a previous defamation and injuria claim.
Gottert said the latest claim was due to a "degrading and defamatory heading above a photo with a caption that was printed in the publication on 30 December 2007."
"A heading that reads 'Piekniek met Dingaan' (Picnic with Dingaan) was printed above a photo of Mr Zuma, in the company of Messrs Leon Schuster and Steve Hofmeyr.
"The caption indicates that Mr Zuma was enjoying a braai with various well-known Afrikaners," said Gottert.
On Thursday, Zuma said: "Freedom of speech is one of the cornerstones in our democracy. As an ordinary South African I have the right to take someone to task if I believe his comment about me was unfair and unbalanced."
Claim 'without merit'
Rapport editor Tim Du Plessis confirmed on Thursday that the paper had received a new lawyer's letter from Zuma.
He said the letter had been referred to the newspaper's lawyers.
An initial assessment of the claim was that it was "without merit and would be fully defended", said Du Plessis.
On Wednesday, Rapport had said it was satisfied to have reached an out of court settlement with Zuma over a previous claim.
The claim related to a reader's letter published in Rapport on April 2 2006 while the trial of Zuma on a charge of rape was underway in the Johannesburg High Court.
Rapport editor Du Plessis said on Wednesday the letter had contained one "defamatory sentence".
He said the paper had retracted the sentence later and published an apology about it in October that year.
In 2006, Zuma lodged defamation claims against the media to the sum of R63m.
He is suing media owners, publishers, editors, reporters, cartoonists and newspapers.
One of the claims against a newspaper concerns "layout foul play".
Broadcaster 94.7 Highveld Stereo was to be sued for R7m for broadcasting a song called My name is Zuma, commenting on the Zuma rape trial.
It was played by Darren "Whackhead" Simpson, a member of the radio station's Rude Awakening (RAW) team.
His biggest claim against one publication was the claim of altogether R20m against the Star.
Opinions and cartoons
This claim consisted of four different claims of R5m each, three of which are against award-winning cartoonist Zapiro.
The fourth was for an article accompanied by a manipulated photograph of Zuma.
The Sunday Times, the Citizen, Sunday Sun, Sunday Independent and Sunday World are all being sued.
Nearly all the items in which Zuma felt he was defamed were opinions or cartoons.
- SAPA