Gauteng High Court bars Ngizwe Mchunu from repeating defamatory claims about Julius Malema

High Court prevents further allegations after April interviews

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has interdicted media personality Ngizwe Mchunu from making further defamatory remarks about Julius Malema after finding statements made during two April interviews to be “unlawful and defamatory.” The urgent order was handed down by Judge Khumalo on Tuesday.

What the court found

The order follows comments Mchunu made during interviews on 28 and 30 April 2026, in which he accused Malema of corruption, alleged links to illegal immigrants and claimed Malema benefited financially from criminal activity. The court said those statements amounted to defamatory conduct and barred Mchunu from repeating them.

Examples of statements placed before the court

Among the statements cited in court, Mchunu alleged that Malema had “recently got 60 million from Nigerian drug dealers” and claimed the EFF leader was “willing to lose everything that he has politically in order to protect Nigerians and other illegal immigrants.”

In a translated transcript of an April 30 interview in Johannesburg, Mchunu described Malema as “like a dead snake something that won’t wake up,” said Malema “must go to jail,” and made further allegations including that Malema took money from “On Point Engineering”, “loot[ed] VBS”, “eating money of illegal foreigners” and was receiving “60 million dollars from illegal foreigners.” He also referred to Malema as “a political devil” and said “the president is scared of him.”

Immediate court orders and next steps

The court ordered that Mchunu not repeat the allegations “explicitly, impliedly, or otherwise” and directed that, pending final determination of the relief sought in Part B, he is “not to publish, or cause to be published, any further defamatory statements about or otherwise concerning the Applicant.”

The judgment also ordered Mchunu to pay costs on a punitive attorney-and-client scale, including the costs of two counsel. The issue of damages and final relief will be determined at a later stage.

Return to court

Mchunu has been directed to appear in court on 19 May 2026 to show cause why the interim order should not be made final.