Editor of the Newspaper concerned to inform him that he was the father to the Plaintiff. Instead he was sought after by Mabandla Bhembe after he himself was told by his Editor that Mahlangu claimed to have fathered Gelane. It is not revealed how the Editor had himself got to know about the allegation except that it transpired it had come out from some Simelane’s. Clearly the story called for caution before publication when considering that to the Newspaper’s own knowledge and the nation at large, Gelane who by now was an elderly person occupying high profile positions in the country as both Senate President and as an Acting Chief of Kontshingila, had always been known as a Simelane at that stage. Furthermore the allegations (sic) she was a Mahlangu, came about at a time when she was involved in a widely published chieftaincy dispute with some Simelanes who did not approve of her being an acting chief. In such circumstances there would be no reasonable grounds to believe such a prominent figure and at that age has different surname than the one she is known by. [43] They got the confirmation from Mr Mahlangu who does not give a sound explanation on why he had to conceal such vital information all these years only to come up now when he was himself old and frail with the Plaintiff having reached the age she has considering her being born in 1952, according to the evidence. Furthermore Mahlangu’s claim was itself based on very stretchy circumstantial evidence in circumstances where he claims to have been staying in Johannesburg at the time of her being conceived and eventually born. He did not know when (date, month and year) of her birth, which would be very strange and improbable for a father who had always known about her being his daughter. This cannot in my view be indicative of the Defendants having reasonable grounds that what they were to publish was true. This is compounded by the fact that Mr. Mahlangu did not seem to know anything about Dorah Dube’s life after the birth of David Mahlangu, a state of affairs one would not expect of a girl friend with whom he has children. [44] Indeed when Mr. Mahlangu eventually gave evidence in Court, and after starting on a confident basis that the Plaintiff was his daughter, cracked and faltered under cross-examination and started saying he would demand that she goes with him for DNA test (egezini) as he put it so that he himself be satisfied that she was not his daughter. Clearly the said Mahlangu was unsure if the Plaintiff was indeed his daughter and wanted to use this Court to compel her to confirm or dispel his suspicions she was. Had the Newspaper taken reasonably proper steps to ascertain (sic) accuracy of the allegation they would have noted same was not 24