News24 | UPDATE | KZN security boss ordered to retract, take down statements against Mkhwanazi

Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi with his counsel, advocate Muzi Sikhakhane, instructed by Sane Mbatha Attorneys, whose arguments secured an interdict against security company owner Calvin Mojalefa Mathibeli.

• KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has been successful in an urgent application to interdict a security boss from making statements about him.
• The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban found the statements by Calvin Mojalefa Mathibeli were defamatory.
• The judge completely rejected Mathibeli’s defence that his statements were true and made in the public interest.
  

Businessman Calvin Mojalefa Mathibeli has been ordered to retract defamatory statements he made on social media and repeated in radio and TV interviews about KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban Judge Sanele Hlatshwayo on Friday ordered this in his ruling which was made available electronically to concerned parties.

On Tuesday, the judge had heard an urgent application by Mkhwanazi to interdict the security company owner from making damaging claims against him.

Hlatshwayo also ordered that Mathibeli take down all of the defamatory statements that he had posted on social media platforms.

“A reasonable reader would certainly understand the statements to mean that the applicant is not worthy of the office he holds because he is a criminal and corrupt,” Hlatshwayo wrote.

He added:

The judge imposed strict deadlines on Mathibeli, giving him just 24 hours from service of the court order to remove, delete and retract all defamatory publications about Mkhwanazi from social media platforms, websites and digital media.

Hlatshwayo delivered a devastating assessment of the damage caused by Mathibeli’s allegations, stating: “The continued publication and circulation of the damaging statements undoubtedly leads to a lack of trust in the applicant as the head of police in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

“The negative impact on the performance of his functions is immeasurable.”

The judge completely rejected Mathibeli’s defence that his statements were true and made in the public interest, finding:

“I find that these statements are defamatory and extremely damaging to the applicant and the position he holds in society,” Hlatshwayo concluded.

READ | Mkhwanazi seeks court order to silence security boss’ ‘defamatory’ remarks

He said he was not convinced that Mathibeli’s possible evidence at the Madlanga Commission would be affected by the relief that Mkhwanazi was asking for.

“Nothing prevents the respondent from giving evidence based on factual material in his possession.”

The interdict remains in force pending the finalisation of Mkhwanazi’s separate damages action, which the court ordered must be instituted within 60 days.

WATCH | ‘It’s not about money’: Mkhwanazi dismisses Mathibeli’s damages claim suggestion

Mathibeli was also hit with a crushing legal costs order to pay the full costs of Mkhwanazi’s successful urgent application, including the expensive fees for two senior counsel employed on Scale B – the higher fee structure typically reserved for complex commercial litigation.