Mashatile's friends launch urgent court bid to stop News24 calling them the 'Alex Mafia'

Two of Deputy President Paul Mashatile's oldest friends, businessmen Bridgman Sithole and Mike Maile, have launched an urgent High Court application for an interdict against Media24 to prohibit publication of their names in connection with the term "Alex Mafia".

The "Alex Mafia" term has been widely used in the public discourse, political circles and the media over the past 16 years to refer to Mashatile and a group of close friends, all political activists from Alexandra in Johannesburg, who held positions in Gauteng government departments in the early 2000s, some of whom became powerful businessmen and held shareholdings in companies that did business with public entities.

The grouping has faced longstanding accusations of benefiting from their proximity to Mashatile, but despite these allegations, no case of corruption has ever been prosecuted against any of the individuals, including Sithole and Maile as well as other alleged members of the "Alex Mafia", Keith Khoza and Nkenke Kekana.