The legal showdown between power couple Basetsana and Romeo Kumalo and author Jackie Phamotse has been postponed to later this month.

The trio appeared in the Randburg Magistrates Court yesterday over a controversial tweet by Phamotse allegedly implicating the media moguls in a gay sex tape involving a young rapper.

They opened a case of crimen injuria after the author sent Twitter into a frenzy three weeks ago with the claims.

In her tweet Phamotse did not mention names, but social media users threw Basetsana and Romeo's names into the mix.

The matter was heard in court shortly before lunch yesterday but was postponed to July 26 for further investigations.

Speaking to Sowetan shortly after the matter was heard, a rather calm Phamotse said she was not shaken by the court case, but was waiting for the investigations to conclude.

"They served me with a protection order on Thursday and according to the law, they need to give me 10 days to respond after they have legally served me, and what they did is that they served me on Thursday and today [Tuesday] there was a court case.

"The magistrate today said 'no it can't be done like that', more especially because we don't have full information and there is still a lack of evidence," she said.

"We can't counter anything as yet because the matter is still under investigation," Phamotse added.

Basetsana and Romeo were not immediately available to comment on the court case yesterday.

In a joint statement released later last month, the Kumalos said the allegations had caused them a lot of damage.

"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."

Attempts to solicit comment from the National Prosecuting Authority drew to a blank by the time of going to print.