Johannesburg - Former PetroSA chairman Tshepo Kgadima has filed a R200 million defamation lawsuit against the former high commissioner to London, Zola Skweyiya.
According to papers filed by Kgadima’s lawyers last week, he is suing Skweyiya over remarks made to the media at the height of fraud allegations against him.
The lawsuit relates to two articles published in print and online editions of Times Media Limited newspaper titles.
Kgadima’s appointment as director and chairman of the PetroSA board proved shortlived after Skweyiya alleged he had been swindled out of more than R3 million in in an investment scheme he said was bogus, through Kgadima’s company, LontohCoal.
These allegations were also communicated to the chairperson of the board of the Central Energy Fund (CEF), who confirmed in a letter to The Sunday Independent that they were the basis for the overturning of Kgadima’s appointment.
At the time, Skweyiya, a former minister of social development, alleged that efforts to get hold of Kgadima – had failed.
He questioned Kgadima’s suitability to head PetroSA.
He alleged Kgadima had lied about being able to raise $1 billion after listing LontohCoal on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
“You can’t put such a person to run a company that is a multimillion-rand entity. He’s a fraudster,” Business Day quoted Skweyiya as saying.
“I have tried to contact the minister, with no luck. I trust Sankie (Mthembi-Mahanyele, CEF chairwoman) will do the right thing and will raise the matter with her.”
Kgadima alleges that Skweyiya’s comments in the Business Day article caused him up to R100m in damages as they could be understood to mean that he was a criminal, dishonest, untrustworthy and had conducted himself in a fraudulent manner.
In a separate article, published in the Sunday Times, Skweyiya was quoted as saying: “That boy (Kgadima) runs away from me all the time and from the lawyers who are chasing him. Where is he? He’s a crook.”
Kgadima has denied ever receiving money from Skweyiya or having a business relationship with him. - Sunday Independent