BL Premium reports that the South Gauteng High Court has ruled that claims that mineral & petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe received R40m meant for miners are false and defamatory.

Mantashe initiated a legal showdown against Zakhele Zuma, who labels himself as an activist for miners, this month after Zuma accused the minister of receiving R40m meant for miners from East Rand Proprietary (ERP) Mines in 1999. At the time Mantashe was general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Zuma alleged Mantashe had left the miners and their families penniless. “I’m in the East Rand. You can see here I’ve got my mothers and fathers, they were working for the ERP Mine, and it was closed in 1999, but they never received their money. Gwede Mantashe was paid over R40m, but they’ve never ever got the money,” Zuma said in a video published on TikTok in May. In court, Mantashe denied the allegations and argued the allegations were malicious and put him and his family in danger because “he lives adjacent to mining communities, and he interacts with them all the time”. Zuma opposed the application but failed to provide evidence in court. The court ruled in Mantashe’s favour on Wednesday. The court also prevented Zuma from doing any interviews or posting statements about the unfounded claims.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sinesipho Schrieber at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

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