INQUIRIES need to be made of President Jacob Zuma about his initiation of a R5m defamation action against cartoonist Zapiro (Jonathan Shapiro) and the Sunday Times and its editor, Mondli Makhanya, only to withdraw it on the eve of the scheduled hearing of the action. This case was one of 13 claims brought by Zuma against newspapers, broadcasters, cartoonists and journalists for allegedly defamatory stories about him.His conduct of the cases has been strangely contradictory. He pursued two with vigour and won damages. Rapport paid him R50,000 as well as his legal costs because the editors failed to remove a defamatory statement about him in a reader’s letter. The Guardian in London paid "very substantial" damages to him and his legal costs, as well as publishing an apology to him for alleging he was guilty of rape, corruption and bribery.But the other cases have been treated very differently. Indeed, many have not been followed through. Having laid the various claims before the court...
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