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The South Gauteng High Court will rule on Tuesday whether the Economic Freedom Fighters will be granted leave to appeal an earlier defamation ruling in its case against former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.
The court ruled on May 30 that the statement made by the EFF against Manuel was false and defamatory and ordered the party to pay Manuel R500 000 in damages. The party was also ordered to apologise and to remove the "unlawful" statement from all its platforms within 24 hours. The EFF, however, indicated hours after the ruling that it would apply for leave to appeal.
Manuel had brought the suit after the EFF statement claimed that he had favoured Edward Kieswetter for the top job at the SA Revenue Service (SARS) because the two knew each other prior to the interview process, among other things. Manuel was head of a selection panel, appointed by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, tasked with interviewing potential candidates for the job and making recommendations. President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Kieswetter to head up SARS on the panel's recommendation.
In his court papers, Manuel acknowledged that he and Kieswetter knew one another prior to the interview process as Kieswetter had served as deputy SARS commissioner when Manuel was Finance Minister. The two had remained on friendly terms. Manuel said in his papers that he had indicated this to the rest of the panel, and while he had not been asked to do so, he had decided to recuse himself from Kieswetter's interview out of an "abundance of caution".
The EFF, however, maintains that Manuel should have recused himself from the interview process of all the shortlisted candidates. It is the party's case that other candidates may have been disadvantaged as a result of Manuel's pre-existing relationship with Kieswetter. It also says that its statement was "political speech" and could not be considered defamation.
In its address to the court on Friday for leave to appeal the ruling against it, the EFF also said they believed that there was a reasonable prospect that another court would come to a different conclusion on the matter. The party also described the damages it was ordered to pay Manuel as "disproportionately high".
Manuel has previously said that he would donate the money to victims of the VBS bank saga.
