A legal bid by a company paid more than R100 million in Ekurhuleni tenders was dismissed in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

• The Gauteng High Court dismissed an urgent application by Theuwedi Trading Enterprise and its sole director to compel News24 to remove its story about the murder of Ekurhuleni forensic auditor Mpho Mafole.
• Judge Elmien du Plessis found that while the News24 article may have implied Theuwedi and its director were among those jeopardised by Mafole’s investigation, it did not accuse them of complicity in his murder.
• Mafole was murdered on 30 June last year – three days after publishing an audit report on irregularities in a R1.8 billion chemical toilets tender in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality.

The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg dismissed an application by Theuwedi Trading Enterprise and its director, Nakampe Aubrey Moliwa, to prevent News24 from reporting on the murder of Ekurhuleni senior forensic auditor Mpho Mafole.

Judge Elmien du Plessis delivered the judgment the day before World Press Freedom Day, recognised on 3 May.

The company and Moliwa, the applicants, had approached the court with an urgent application to compel News24 to remove an article which they argued implied the company and its director had a motive to murder Mafole.

Mafole was murdered on 30 June last year, three days after publishing an audit report detailing irregularities in the awarding of a R1.8 billion chemical toilets tender in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality.

Theuwedi was one of 15 contractors appointed.

READ | Ekurhuleni millions: Questionable operations of shadowy company involved in toilet scandal

In 2022, the municipality appointed Theuwedi as a service provider for the hiring, delivery and maintenance of chemical toilets, despite having a registered address more than 400km from Ekurhuleni.

The municipality again appointed the company the same day Mafole was murdered, for the same services.

News24 reported that the municipality paid the company more than R100 million for the contracts, which were part of the last to be probed by Mafole before his death.

Du Plessis said in her judgment that News24’s story does not say that the applicants killed Mafole.

“It does not say that either applicant arranged the killing, paid for it, or acted in concert with those who committed it. It does not identify any factual link between the applicants and the arrested suspect, Thabani Goodwill Ntshalintshali,” said Du Plessis.

Du Plessis continued:

She dismissed the application and ordered the applicants to pay the respondents’ costs, including the costs of two counsel.

On Thursday, advocate Adrian Friedman, appearing for Media24, News24 editor in-chief Adriaan Basson, and investigative journalists Sikonathi Mantshantsha and Jeff Wicks, who were cited in their personal capacities, told the court it was “manifestly in the public interest to know the detail of this [tender], especially in the South Africa of today”.

The applicants’ central complaint was that News24’s story on 16 April conveyed the “defamatory implication” that Theuwedi was a non-existent company that does not conduct lawful business and was unlawfully involved in the tender, and that Moliwa was “corrupt or dishonest” and had a motive to procure or participate in Mafole’s murder.

READ | Tracked, traced and eliminated: How Mpho Mafole was murdered

But Du Plessis found no evidence of this argument in News24’s story.

“The article may create unease. It may cast a shadow. It may suggest that the applicants are part of a troubling procurement story. But it does not clearly accuse them of complicity in murder. It does not cross the threshold of legally unacceptable speech.”

She argued the story addressed public expenditure, municipal tender compliance, and the circumstances surrounding an auditor’s investigation into procurement irregularities.

“That is plainly a matter of high public benefit,” said Du Plessis.