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Celebrity couple Basetsana and Romeo Kumalo have laid criminal charges and are applying for a protection order against an author who allegedly started a rumour that they had appeared in a gay sex video.

In their official response released yesterday, the couple said it had been enormously challenging to stay silent over the past week since the rumour surfaced.

“Our silence thus far has not been because there is any merit or truth in these allegations — but simply because we have been so deeply shocked and hurt by the salacious content and manner in which it has been recklessly shared and spread,” they said in a statement.

Social media was abuzz with a claim that Romeo had participated in a sex act with a popular South African rap artist while Basetsana watched. The act was said to have been filmed.

“The allegations allude to a sex tape which does not exist. The source of the allegations is an author whom we have never met, spoken to or had any dealings with,” the couple said.

“We can only deduce for reasons which remain unclear that the motivation behind these unfounded and salacious rumours was nothing but pure malice, and perhaps an attempt by the author to create publicity and boost her book sales.”

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On June 5 a tweet under the Twitter handle @JackiePhamotse read: “Just over heard a painful conversation, a Female TV mogul … Pleading with one of my girls to not share videos of her drunk and her husband rimming a celebrity boy!!!!! What the hell!!! Kanti what kind of marriages do we have now!!!! I have asked to see this video.”

This was followed later by the tweet: “Just saw this video! Hayibo these old men have serious stamina!!! No wonder this poor woman is drinking so much. Imagine your yellow bone husband rimming a rapper in your house and you as the wife are watching and one of your friends is secretly videotaping.”

Those who responded to her claimed to know the identities of those mentioned in her tweet.

Phamotse has not responded to a Sunday Times request for comment.

The tweet did not name the couple, but Twitter was soon awash with rumours that it was the high-profile former Miss South Africa and her businessman husband.

The Kumalos decided to take a stand against the author and the “keyboard warriors who so swiftly jump on the bandwagon to share harmful content”.

They have laid a crimen injuria charge against the author and are weighing action against media that carried the rumour.

Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has read the riot act to the public protector, instructing her to withdraw a policy on the appointment of advisers because she did not follow proper procedure in adopting it.

His move comes after Busisiwe Mkhwebane unilaterally drafted and implemented a policy on the appointment of a special adviser in February that deviates from normal recruitment processes and is silent on the qualifications required.

It has now emerged that Mkhwebane implemented the policy without consulting Nene, as required by the Public Protector Act, approaching him only in March, a month after she put the disputed policy in place.

In his letter sent to Mkhwebane two Mondays ago, Nene asked Mkhwebane to drop her policy, to allow for proper consultation with the National Treasury as required by the act.

The National Treasury has carefully considered the content of both the letter and policy on the appointment of special advisers to the executive authority,” Nene wrote.

“It is noted that the policy was approved on 14 February 2018 and came into effect on that date. However, in terms of the process set out in section 3(10) of Public Protector Act, the public protector is required to consult the minister of finance when exercising powers in terms of section 3(1) and 3(9).

“In this case, however, the policy has been approved before consultation with the minister of finance.

“Based on the above facts, I propose the withdrawal of the policy to allow for due consultation with the minister of finance as required by section 3(10) of the act. Once consultation with the minister of finance has been concluded, then the public protector can table the document at the National Assembly within 14 days after making the determination.”

Mkhwebane appointed Sibusiso Nyembe on a three-month contract in April based on the now contested policy, at the level of a chief director, a post that comes with a gross monthly salary of about R100,000. Mkhwebane’s office sai

Explaining the policy to MPs this week, Mkhwebane told the portfolio committee on justice that she went ahead with Nyembe’s appointment as Nene delayed responding to her consultation and National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete did not respond at all.

Mkhwebane also argued that the Public Protector Act was “very clear” and indicated beyond doubt that the functions of the protector could not be halted while waiting for consultation processes to unfold. “That was done in terms of that understanding.”

Mkhwebane said the consultations with Nene and the National Assembly were about determining the adviser’s salary level, not about the policy itself.

When consultations took place with former finance minister Malusi Gigaba on the organogram of her office, he only showed interest in the financial implications, she said.

“Accordingly, it is my considered view that the policy and anything done under it … [including] the comment which is expected from the National Assembly should be more on the compensation as to why I decided on salary level 14.”

Mkhwebane said Nyembe, who is a conveyancer by profession and has a qualification in banking law, had expertise in various fields. His expertise strengthened her office’s legal services and answered the need to deal with responses to the process of appeal and litigation before court.

Wet bank notes lay stuck to the tarmac around a badly damaged G4S cash-in-transit van after it was shot at during an apparent heist on a busy motorway in Cape Town on Monday.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Brenda Muridili confirmed that there had been a cash-in-transit incident on Jakes Gerwel Drive (formerly Vanguard Drive).

A team of forensic experts were coming the scene for clues just before 11am‚ watched by hundreds of bystanders. A security officer‚ wearing a G4S uniform‚ walked around with his head covered by a bandage.

It was unclear if any money was taken but video footage taken by witnesses recorded several gunshots being fired‚ causing mayhem in early-morning traffic as motorists tried to get away from the scene.

So this is where we are now: the political noise is at full blast, the whites say the blacks are revolting and incapable while the blacks say the whites are revolting and selfish. If you were to listen to many so-called South African leaders, on social media and other public platforms, that is where our country is today. A country divided, our backs to each other.

A mere 24 years after we seemed to cohere under the vision of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa, we are swiftly disintegrating into a country of us and them, of camps and villages where we are defined by the colours of our skin. We are pointing fingers, we are shouting, we are angry. We cannot hear each other. We cannot bear each other.

Meanwhile, the ideological glue that has held it, largely, all together is coming undone. The ANC, the self-styled “leader of society”, is a party whose every regional or provincial meeting is characterised by the throwing of chairs, the intimidation of members, the paying of bribes and the shouting-down of leaders.

There is no thinking, no reflection, at ANC conferences. There is merely the warring for positions. The ANC cannot hold itself together. It cannot, therefore, hold the rest of our society together.

Public Investment Corporation boss Dan Matjila allegedly asked a company that had been granted loans through the PIC to pay off his girlfriend’s R300,000 debt. This is among the claims in documents filed by UDM leader Bantu Holomisa in the High Court in Pretoria this week.

Holomisa is seeking to have Matjila suspended and to prevent the PIC board from taking any decisions against the CEO, because of conflicts of interest.

In his documents, Holomisa claims board meeting minutes detailing claims of improper behaviour were “sanitised” by cutting out controversial portions. He also claims an investigation into Matjila was restricted to exclude his relationship with alleged girlfriend, Pretty Louw.

Matjila referred the Sunday Times to PIC spokesman Deon Botha, who said: “When the affidavit is received it will be shared with our board and legal division.”