and Publishing Co Ltd v Esselen’s Estate 1994 (2) SA 1 (A); Sankie Mthembu – Mahanyele Mail and Guardian and Another [2004] All SA 511 (SCA) paragraph [26]. [23] Inspite of this established fact, learned counsel for the Appellants, Adv. Flynn, tenaciously contended that the words in the context used are an innuendo and not defamatory per se. I find myself unable to subscribe to this proposition for reasons that appear hereunder. [24] The law of defamation construes an innuendo to mean, an explanation of a statement’s defamatory meaning when that meaning is not apparent from the statement’s face. This concept is appositively espoused by Blacks Law Dictionary (8th ed) pages 805 – 806, which defines the term “innuendo” in the following words:“An oblique remark or indirect suggestion of a derogatory nature. An explanatory word or passage inserted parenthetically into a legal document. In criminal law, an innuendo is a statement in an indictment showing the application or meaning of matter previously expressed, the meaning of which would not otherwise be clear. In the law of defamation, an innuendo is the plaintiff’s explanation of a statement’s defamatory meaning when that meaning is not apparent from the statement’s face. For example, the innuendo of the statement “David burned down his house” can be shown by pleading that the statement was understood to mean that David was defrauding his insurance company (the fact that he had insured his house is pleaded and proved by inducement). CF. INDUCEMENT (4); COLLOQUIUM. [Cases: Libel and Slander; Injurious Falsehood 4, 129] ‘Innuendo----- is a word used in declaration and law pleadings, to ascertain a person or thing which was named before ----If a man say, that such a one had the pox, innuendo the French pox, this will not be admitted, because the French pox was not mentioned before, and the words shall be construed in a more favourable sense. But if in discourse of the French pox, one say, that such a one had the pox, innuendo the French pox, this will be admitted to render that certain which was uncertain before” 2 Richard Burn, A New Law Dictionary 24 (1792). 15