ANC secretary-general Fikile “Vutha” Mbalula has refused to retract claims he made that EFF leader Julius Malema was going door to door looking for illegal foreigners and thus has no right to act as an ally of such people.
According to Mbalula, who had received a letter from Malema asking him to retract his statement he made during a press briefing at Luthuli House last week, such will not happen because the leader of the red berets brigade misunderstands the law of defamation.
Mbalula’s defiance, which must see him dragged to the Joburg High Court, where Malema has an impressive winning streak on defamation lawsuits, comes after a chaotic weekend where the two and their followers were trading insults on social media.
The social media scuffle, which was very ugly, seems to have emboldened Mbalula, who has emerged this week telling Malema to go fly a kite because he believes his statements were in fact true.
“The allegations, by your client (Malema), that the statement by our client (Mbalula) is defamatory are factually incorrect, legally unsustainable, and founded on a deliberately distorted interpretation of public commentary made by our client,” wrote Mbalula’s legal representatives to their counterparts in Malema’s camp.
“The inferences drawn by your client and assertions made demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the law of defamation, for which our client rejects your client’s claim.”
Malema demands retraction
Malema had demanded that Mbalula withdraw and retract his statement in a similar manner in which he made the allegations or face the pain of being dragged to court.
According to Malema, Mbalula’s retraction would have to take the form of a public statement, using a video format, in which you, the induna of Luthuli House, apologize to the former ANC Youth League president, who happens to be his political protégé, for the defamatory allegations made
Mbalula would also have to accept the hurtful, damaging, and defamatory effect his statements might have had on Malema.
As if this were not humiliating enough, Mbalula would have to share this video-format apology and retraction personally on all his social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter (X), TikTok, and Instagram.
To add salt to injury, the EFF would then go on to use its impressive communications department reach to further aggravate Mbalula’s apology by sharing it with all mainstream media houses in the country.
Mbalula defies Malema
Mbalula has told Malema to go jump off the nearest cliff as he insists that his statements are nowhere near defamation and appears ready for a clash of the titans collision at the Johannesburg High Court, where Malema enjoys an advantage if recent history is anything to go by.
“Our client (Mbalula) has instructed us to record, on his behalf, that the proposition by your client (Malema) that his statements were defamatory, malicious, vexatious, untrue, spurious, and misplaced is bereft of merit, as it is neither supported by the facts nor by the applicable legal principles governing political expression,” charge Mbalula’s lawyers.
“We are further instructed that your client has cynically isolated a single portion of our client’s address and attributed to it the most damaging meaning conceivable, while carefully disregarding the broader context of the address, the issues under discussion, and the prevailing political discourse to which our client was responding.
“We have been instructed to reject this assertion as it seeks to formulate a defamatory interpretation of isolated words instead of having regard to the entire briefing and its surrounding context.”
Mbalula is adamant that his remarks were plainly made within the context of the raging political discussion in the country anchored on the “abahambe” clarion call championed by the March and March movement, calling for law to be enforced on illegal foreigners roaming around the streets of South Africa unaccounted for and committing heinous crimes.
‘Malema’s being a cry baby’
The “boss” of the ANC head office added that his comments did not happen during private discourse nor were they intended to constitute a judicial pronouncement or definitive factual finding concerning the conduct of any individual, let alone Malema whom he believes is being a cry baby for rushing to the courts claiming he has been defamed.
“Your client will undoubtedly agree that political parties are, by their very nature, ideological organizations and are entitled to articulate policy positions, promote political ideals, and advocate particular constitutional visions. In the same vein, they are subject to public scrutiny and criticism concerning the conduct of their members, their public campaigns, and the practical implementation of those stated ideals.
“For the sake of clarity, the attached statement seeks to illustrate the obvious proposition that the matters upon which our client commented on 2 July 2026 did not emerge from a factual vacuum but rather formed part of an existing and well-documented political discourse in which your client itself has been an active participant by conducting visits to restaurants to examine the employment ratio between South African citizens and foreign nationals and engage management regarding those matters.”
The attachment in question is an EFF media advisory dated January 18, 2022 announcing that Malema would be visiting Kreme Restaurant at the Mall of Africa in Midrand the following day “to check the employment ratio between South African citizens and foreign nationals”.
Mbalula believes his statement was well within the confines of fair political commentary when he charged that Malema was “knocking on people’s doors, telling foreigners to go outside the law”.
At this point, a court showdown appears inevitable, and Malema is beaming with confidence after recently thumping Mbalula’s colleague, Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane, in another defamation lawsuit in KuGompo.
