The Mpumalanga civil trial, where a gentleman called Fred Daniel is suing various government departments and individuals for billions of rand, has featured prominently recently. Daniels has publicly broadcast his fight with Deputy President David Mabuza and online media house Daily Maverick.
It appears Daniel has tried his best to make Mabuza out to be the villain extraordinaire. In what is a win for Mabuza in court, the lawyers representing Daniel amended the indictment in the matter and is no longer citing Mabuza in his personal capacity.
DLMB served a Notice of Intention to Amend on the State Attorneys on 11 June 2021. Previously Mabuza was the Seventh Respondent personally. Now their case is that this respondent is the Member of the Executive Council: Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs. That is an amendment removing the Deputy President from this matter and happened more than a year ago. It is a dramatic about-turn considering the media coverage that Daniel had mustered up in this case against the Deputy President, now abandoning the allegation that Mabuza is personally liable.
“It is a pity this hasn't been picked up by the media”, Ulrich Roux, a Johannesburg attorney, who represents Mabuza in other matters, said.
“The deputy is completely off the hook here since he isn't a respondent in his personal capacity anymore,” Frans Mashele, a well-known Johannesburg lawyer, said.
Daily Maverick journalist Kevin Bloom previously published an article that Mabuza’s wife, Patience Mnisi, made a huge commission from the sale of the Daniel’s Badplaas land. That turned out to be nonsense. "Bloom is happy to be misled by Daniel’, General Mulangi Mphego, the special adviser to Mabuza said to The Star. "For example, Bloom still reports as if the Deputy President is personally a respondent in the matter. The readers and the public are misled. The Deputy President is not a respondent in his personal capacity. Get the information from the lawyers and report the truth" an irritated Mphego said.
Daniel has an interesting relationship with the courts in South Africa. He has launched various protection orders against commercial opponents, including Mabuza. In the application he launched against Mabuza, which was published widely by the South African media he was found by a senior Magistrate Sarel Grabe in Carolina, to be dishonest and “an abuser of court process for his own benefit and to hide his own illegal activities”
Following this loss, Daniel regrouped and ran to the Pretoria High Court for an interdict preventing Mabuza from killing him. Daniel had an affidavit from Petronella Sambo, who claimed to be the niece of Mabuza. She claimed that she overheard a plot to have Daniel murdered earlier that week and that Mabuza hatched this plot at his smallholding in Barberton. A lot of media followed the launching of this interdict.
This, too, was unsuccessful as it turned out that Sambo was not related to Mabuza and that Mabuza was actually in Russia when Sambo claimed she heard him plot the murder in Barberton. Sambo was jailed for fraud and is currently serving time in prison. "What remains outstanding about this matter is who paid R700 000 into Sambo’s bank account shortly before she told her lies to Daniel. The police has a suspect on the radar. Lies have short legs and the campaign to embarrass the Deputy President in the media has been unsuccessful”, Mphego said.