Johannesburg - Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba said on Wednesday he had no intention of retracting allegations he made of a link between an official from the African National Congress and a company implicated in corruption despite the threat of a R5 million damages claim.
"I have received a letter from the lawyers of ANC regional chairperson councillor Geoff Makhubo, giving me 10 days to publicly retract and apologise for alleging that there was a corrupt relationship between Regiment, a company at the centre of state capture, and councillor Makhubo," said Mashaba, whose Democratic Alliance party runs the city in a coalition after unseating the ANC in 2016.
"Makhubo will receive no such retraction or apology and I look forward to defending this matter in an open court of law in which all the evidence against Makhubo and Regiments will become public record," Mashaba added in a statement.
Last month, the Johannesburg mayor said he had received notice that a R290 million unsecured loan owed to the city by state-owned arms firm Denel through Regiment had been repaid.
The money had been lent to cash-strapped Denel via an unsecured loan while Regiments was managing Johannesburg's R18 billion sinking fund derived from rates and taxes paid by residents.
Mashaba opened a criminal case of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering on December 10, after a report implicating Makhubo and former Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau.