The plaintiff's action against the defendant's is for damages arising from deformation. The defendant's having published a defamatory article about the plaintiff on 11 January 2011 in one of its newspapers, the City Press, which is widely read and distributed in South Africa.

The plaintiff alleges that the article so published was wrongful and defamatory. At the time that the article was the published, the plaintiff was a councillor for ward 60 of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. As a result of the publication he was withdrawn as a candidate for re-election as a councillor.

The plaintiff pleads that the defendants were aware or ought to have been aware that the publication of such untruth and defamatory remakes would result in the plaintiff being withdrawn as a candidate or that it would lead to the public questioning his integrity and sincerity.

There were two claims by the plaintiff. The first being a claim for special damages, in the amount of R1,2 million, under the Aquilian action, for loss of earnings and the second claim was for general damages of R200 000.00, under the actio iniuriarum for defamation.