Gigaba’s ultimatum to Redi
Minister wants retraction of visa tweets in 7 days
The spat between home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba and former radio host Redi Tlhabi has escalated, with Gigaba’s lawyers officially issuing a seven-day ultimatum to Tlhabi to retract her remarks made on Twitter or face legal action.
Yesterday, Tlhabi took to Twitter to confirm that Gigaba’s lawyers had contacted her. “So last week an ex-colleague got a call from honourable Gigaba’s lawyers asking for my home address. I kindly gave my lawyer’s address. He received a letter today‚ basically asking I retract within seven days‚ or else.
“So no summons yet‚ just a request for apology and retraction‚” Tlhabi tweeted.
Sowetan has learnt that Gigaba’s lawyers wrote to Tlhabi demanding an apology within seven days, failing which, legal action would be taken against her.
Gigaba is aggrieved over Tlhabi’s tweets which alleged that he had amended visa regulations on the travel of children because of his own personal issues.
Tlhabi claimed that Gigaba was upset after a relative of his ex-wife had taken his child on holiday without his permission. The laws around travelling with children were then amended, she alleged. Gigaba argues that he was only home affairs minister from May 2014 and the amendment process of the
Immigration Act had started long before him, in 2009. He has claimed that preliminary legal opinion was obtained from the chief state law adviser in 2010, and in July of that year a cabinet meeting was held to approve the bill for introduction to parliament.
The bills were drafted in the first half of 2011 and on June 22 the National Assembly voted on the Immigration Amendment Bill. In August 2011, President Jacob Zuma assented to it.
Gigaba said that when all of this happened, he was minister of public enterprises and played no role in the process.
He described Tlhabi’s allegations that he changed visa regulation in 2014 just for his own hidden agenda as absurd.
What angered him even further was that Tlhabi mentioned his daughter’s name in her tweets. Last month, Gigaba threatened to sue Tlhabi for defamation if she did not retract her statements and apologise.
The changes in the immigration laws were heavily criticised by the tourism sector and reportedly lost the industry billions of rand.
‘‘ So no summons yet, just request for apology