Rustenburg mayor Mpho Khunou, who appeared in a North West court yesterday over harassment allegations, has now threatened his alleged ex-lover with a R300,000 lawsuit.
Khunou appeared at the Tlhabane magistrate's court to argue why an interim protection order granted to his alleged former flame Sina Makgatlha in December should not be finalised. Judgment was postponed until next week.
Earlier yesterday, Khunou’s lawyer Rudi Krause had argued that the application should be dismissed because the affidavit that Makgatlha used when she applied for an interim protection order did not have the signature of a commissioner of oaths.
“Her affidavit is [a] wholesale mess and should be ignored. We don’t know who the commissioner is and where and what time that affidavit was commissioned,” charged Krause.
Makgatlha’s lawyer Liesl Bedeker SC argued that it was unfair for the court to expect her client to fully comprehend how commissioners of oaths work.
Yesterday’s court appearance was preceded by a letter of demand last week in which Khunou threatened Makgatlha with a R300,000 lawsuit if she did not desist from destroying his “good name”.
Makgatlha, 35, received the letter from the mayor’s lawyers Chittoo Naran Attorneys on Wednesday despite it being dated December 13 2020.
“This letter accordingly serve as demand from you to immediately withdraw any defamatory and harmful statements/publications you have made against Mr Khunou ... and to issue a formal written apology to our client. We also hold instructions to demand from you the payment of damages for causing harm to our client’s good name and reputation in the sum of R300,000. Should you fail to do so, we hold instruction to proceed with issuing of summons against you,” read the letter in part.
Makgatlha said the letter was delivered to her home by the sheriff of the court on Wednesday. “I then received a call from the police that the mayor has opened a case of defamation against me on October 1 and I must come to the Rustenburg police station. Upon engagement with the police I asked them why it had taken them months to inform me about the case and they said they had [a] high workload. It’s a surprise for me because defamation is a civil matter and should not involve police,” said Makgatlha yesterday.
Makgatlha, the former senior administrator at the Rustenburg local municipality’s infrastructure department, had opened a crimen injuria and defamation case against Khunou in October.
She accused the mayor of allegedly distributing her nudes and private messages between the two of them to a third party, who then allegedly circulated them to several ANC WhatsApp groups.
She had claimed that she and the married Khunou had an affair in 2018 that ended early last year when they clashed over work-related matters resulting in her resignation.
Khunou has rejected the allegations against him, saying they were politically driven and were “without any basis”. He refused to comment yesterday.
Provincial police spokesperson Brig Sabata Mokgwabone said “communication with the complainant/victim is common and frequent as part of investigation. "Unfortunately, we cannot give every step of what we are doing as that might also jeopardise the investigation”.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.