Zuma claims record R63m from media

The claim was increased by R2m yesterday after 94.7 Highveld Stereo apparently further ‘insulted’ him by broadcasting a song by Darren ‘Whackhead’ Simpson, a member of the radio station\'s Rude Awakening (RAW) team, called My name is Zuma. A Beeld report says this is the largest claim by an individual for defamation in SA legal history. Zuma is suing media owners, publishers, editors, journalists, cartoonists and newspapers. The biggest claim against one publication is that of R20m against The Star. It comprises four different claims of R5m each, three of which are against the cartoonist, Zapiro. The fourth is for an article accompanied by a manipulated photograph of Zuma. The second-biggest claim (R10m) is against the Afrikaans Sunday paper, Rapport. The claim against Highveld Stereo (R7m) is the third-largest and that against the Sunday Times is fourth, with a claim of R6m. The Citizen, Sunday Sun, Sunday Independent and Sunday World are being sued for R5m each. Almost all the items in which Zuma feels he was defamed are opinions or cartoons. Zuma has appointed former Conservative Party MP, Advocate Jurg Prinsloo, and Johannesburg attorney, Wycliffe Mothuloe, to handle the claims. Full Beeld report

A Business Day report claims Prinsloo has offered his legal services free of charge, because Zuma had allegedly been kind to Afrikaners. The report says this latest move seems set to embarrass Zuma’s political backers and has alienated his senior advisers, potentially placing the former Deputy President on a new collision course with the ANC and alienating his left-wing backers in the alliance. It says Zuma’s inner circle is understood to have advised against the move. Key Zuma aids feel the law suits could be politically costly on the eve of his corruption trial, which Cosatu has described as a ‘political trial’. Full Business Day report

Legal experts say politicians and other public figures cannot expect the same level of privacy as private individuals. According to a Business Day report, they say public figures are more exposed to public scrutiny and are held accountable for the actions due to their high profiles. ‘Expecting the media to publish only the facts which were proved in court is not practical,’ says Peter Grealy, partner at commercial law firm Webber Wentzel Bowens. ‘The public has a right to information about any public figure, whether it be the head of state, a politician or a celebrity. A public figure is fair game for the media,’ Grealy says. Full Business Day report