By Zuko Komisa
Panyaza Lesufi, the MEC for Gauteng Education, has been given till Friday to apologize or face legal action for defamation that may cost him R500,000.
According to the lobby group, the lawsuit stems from Lesufi’s alleged comments that Afriforum is racist.
AfriForum’s attorneys stated in a letter of demand delivered to Lesufi on July 5 that Lesufi’s remarks were “wrongful and defamatory”
According to the letter, Lesufi said, “I hate racism, racists are meaningless and useless. I will never defend a racist. We are what we are now as a country because of racists. I have a strong, strong view against racism. If anyone wants me to defend and glorify racism, I will never do that. They must not come to me.”
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The remarks by Lesufi are said to have been made last month following his election as the ANC provincial chairman.
Afriforum’s Head of Policy and Action, Ernst Roets, says they are concerned about false claims being thrown around.
“It’s so unfortunate to have a situation where people simply make false claims about other organisations and role players and defend it. We cannot just let it go.”
“Mr Lesufi’s main issue here is that he seems to be hell bent on destroying Afrikaans schools. Trying to address this issue outside the realm of the court would be the appropriate way to go but it doesn’t always work out like that. We are concerned about defamation, about false claims being thrown into the public sphere,” says Roets.
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