New Age2.png Malema Interdicted 'Our employees have the right to do their jobs without the threat of violence' Dudu Dube, The New Age, Johannesburg, 10 January 2016 The Economic Freedom Fighters has been interdicted from making any threats or engaging in protests at any of the properties owned by the Gupta family. The party's ban on The New Age and Africa News Network's journalists from attending all EFF events was also lifted by the North Gauteng High Court yesterday. The interdict was granted after Oakbay Investments and all its subsidiary companies owned by the Gupta family, lodged an urgent application arguing that EFF president Julius Malema's utterances at a press conference last week were an incitement to violence. Malema said at the briefing at the time that The New Age and ANN7 journalists would no longer be allowed to cover his party's events, and if they did their safety would not be guaranteed. Threats As the urgent application was being heard, the lawyer representing the companies drew presiding judge Willem Louw's attention to the fact that scores of EFF members were still making threats of violence despite its lawyers denying it. "As we are here in court this is what is happening at a protest being led and addressed by Malema. They are carrying placards written: "We will stop war with war #Guptas", advocate Nic Maritz said. However, Malema's lawyers denied the utterances were meant to incite violence and that no one would ever think that the party members would use physical violence. His counsel Ismail Semenya, SC, denied that Malema was xenophobic, racist and calculated to inciting violence when he said he would drive the Gupta family out of Gauteng if his party won the province in the next election. "They (Guptas) cannot be surprised if they become part of the political game during the election campaign," Semenya said. Victory for Constitution Oakbay's instructing attorney, Gert van der Merwe, said yesterday's ruling was a victory for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. The EFF will appeal the judge's ruling. Oakbay chief executive officer Nazeem Howa said they were left with no choice but to approach the court seek relief- "an interdict to protect our assets, business, employees and their families". "Not only are these threats imminent and calling for violence, but they further infringe on the constitutional rights of the applicants. It was obvious from all the statements and correspondence that the EFF refused to withdraw any of the comments and threats of imminent violence," Howa said. Judge Louw granted the interdict but said he would give his reasons in due time. Oakbay chairperson Atul Gupta, welcomed the court interdict. "The Guptas have been in South Africa since 1993 and are proudly South African. Some of the family's children were born and raised in South Africa. Oakbay Investments employs more than 4 500 employees growing and reinvesting all profits in the country. The Gupta family will continue to invest in South Africa, promote South Africa and create jobs for South Africans." Editor-in-chief of The New Age Moegsien Williams said: "Our employees have the right to do their jobs without the threat of violence." [email protected] From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/10022016/epaperpdf/1.pdf -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
