Richard Young
Photo: Henk Kruger

Johannesburg - The High Court in Cape Town has ruled that the Friends of Zuma Trust and a related website had defamed arms deal whistleblower Richard Young, the Sunday Times reported.

Young was awarded R270 000 in damages after the court found that two posts issued in 2008 on the Friends of Jacob Zuma website - which attacked Young and his company CCII Systems - were defamatory.

One of the posts suggested Young was a member of the Broederbond and a traitor.

The other accused his company - dealing with military information technology - of using corrupt methods to get contracts.

The Friends of Zuma Trust and website were established to raise money for Jacob Zuma after he was charged with corruption - charges which were later dropped.

Young had sought damages of R500 000 each for himself and his company from trustees Fikile Majola, Sizwe Shezi and Donald Mkhwanazi.

Judge Yasmin Shenaz Meer rejected the three's argument that they were not website administrators and did not have control over posts.

“It is not possible for the trust to sustain the pleas that it was not aware of the posting on the website given that the posts have been there in excess of five and a half years.”

Along with the damages, Meer also ordered the posts to be removed. - Sapa

With acknowledgement to Sapa and Independent Online.

Richard Young

An interesting fact that the court papers and oral evidence ventilate in substantial detail, but not the judgment as much, is that the webmistress of the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust's website was another of his greatest admirers - none other than Ranjeni Munusamy - she of Mac Maharaj, Moe Shaik and Vusi Mona infamy.

A big mouth of the 4th Estate, whether paper or digital, but completely scare in the court room as a witness.

She was also a manager of the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust responsible inter alia for the  raising and disbursement of funds collected.


George Venter

zuma's and CancER's lies exposed yet again ... it is going to cost them a lot, lot more in the long run - their very souls.


Richard Young

This saga's been going on so long I can't work out when the photo was taken.

It wasn't last week.


Ren

Oh, good. Another win for the honest man. Great news.