Businessman Robert Gumede’s legal team plans to serve a summons on the Sunday Independent soon, his lawyers said on his behalf at the weekend.
“[The legal team] are quantifying the damage to his reputation and the irreparable losses suffered by his companies which operate globally as a result of the defamatory article, which damages will exceed R1bn,” Brian Kahn Incorporated said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Gumede threatened to sue the newspaper, deputy editor Japhet Ncube and reporter Mogomotsi Magome over an article published on 2 March headlined “ANC funder probed”.
The report claimed that Gumede’s JSE-listed IT firm Gijima was the subject of an investigation authorised by president Jacob Zuma.
The report alleged that Zuma signed a proclamation for the Special Investigating Unit to probe the R360m tender awarded by the rural development department to Gumede’s company. — Sapa