ANC MPL lays criminal charges against a Twitter account for defamation
19 May 2019
ANC MPL in the Western Cape, Cameron Dugmore has laid criminal charges against an unknown person behind a Twitter account that accused him of being behind a plot to undermine President Cyril Ramaphosa during the elections.
In a statement on Saturday, Dugmore said he decided to lay charges at the Rondebosch Police Station, in Cape Town after the account made defamatory and scurrilous claims about him.
“Among the many malicious and unfounded allegations made by this faceless account, which I had elected to ignore until now, is the highly divisive claim that I was party to a plot to undermine the leadership of President Ramaphosa during the Provincial and National Government Elections campaign,” Dugmore said.
“Through these allegations, the holder/s of this account have unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impaired my dignity in the public domain, hence my decision to formally lay charges and allow the law to take its rightly course.”
“I have also reported this account to Twitter and awaiting a report in that regard,” he added.
The Twitter account, which was created in 2018 also accused the ANC Gaby Shapiro branch of benefitting from misappropriated funds during the election.
“These baseless allegations, which the branch has publicly distanced itself from, hurt the image of the organisation thereby bringing the ANC into disrepute,” Dugmore said.
Dugmore said that at a time when the ANC in the Western Cape should be doing serious introspection about the renewal, unity and rebuilding the organisation, “others have elected to become an antithesis to this project.”
“Our recent electoral performance in the province indicates that the people of the Western Cape have not completely regained confidence in the ANC in the province and our immediate concern ought to be how we rebuild from that.”
“Therefore, internal conflict such as that brewed by this derogatory account only damages our integrity and Brand ANC.”
Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut confirmed that a case was opened at the Rondebosch police station on Friday afternoon.
