Pretoria – The chairman of the DA in Mkhondo, Mpumalanga, is claiming R250 000 in damages from a DA council member whom he claimed linked him to an incident where under-age prostitutes were allegedly solicited during a councillors’ workshop held in Durban.

Hein Sunkel is claiming for defamation in the Pretoria High Court following a letter written by Walter Masuku. The latter handed the letter to another local councillor, Rob Wilson.

Sunkel told the court that Masuku wrote the letter on October 13, 2011, and handed it to Wilson. 

In the letter, handed to court, Masuku stated that after finishing the workshop, he and Sunkel had a drink in a hotel bar. Sunkel, he said, “bought himself hot stuff”, while he had a tin of coke, as he is not a drinker. 

They then set off to look at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, together with some other councillors. It was late when they returned and en route they encountered “many young girls moving around the streets”.

Masuku said in the letter that while they were “chatting” to these girls, a police van stopped and asked what they were doing. 

Masuku said he at this point asked to be taken back to the hotel, as it was “unsafe for us to talk with these young girls”.

For more details go to www.iol.co.za