DURBAN – The Durban High Court has dismissed, with punitive costs, Calvin Mathibeli’s application for leave to appeal a judgment regarding defamatory social media posts about Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. He was ordered to pay all legal costs.
The prominent Durban-based businessman and founder of Calvin & Family Group (CFG) had sought to appeal an unfavourable judgment delivered on 27 February which gave him 24 hours to remove defamatory posts which he had made about Mkhwanazi on social media, websites and digital media.
Mkhwanazi launched an urgent legal application in the same court against Mathibeli, who allegedly accused Mkhwanazi of ordering hitmen to kill him and stated that he (Mkhwanazi) was “captured” by competitors, leading to police intimidation and extortion. The KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner sought an interdict to prevent Mathibeli from making further false statements, arguing they undermined the integrity of the police.
In a media statement, Col Robert Netshiunda, spokesperson for KwaZulu-Natal police, said Mathibeli’s defamatory, character-assassinating allegations had the potential to tarnish the image of both Mkhwanazi and the entire police service in KwaZulu-Natal. He said the court prohibited Mathibeli from repeating false accusations he had made about Mkhwanazi.
In the same statement, Mkhwanazi has welcomed the judgment saying: “It is a valuable lesson to loose-tongued individuals who recklessly defame others with no proof. This victory is for law-abiding South Africans who denounce criminality and aspire for a crime-free South Africa. Anyone can be challenged, but defaming a person should not be part of the debate. The law is for us all, and everyone has Constitutional rights which must always be respected.”
This judgment comes barely two weeks after Mathibeli lost his urgent high court application to prevent a SAPS firearms compliance inspection at his Calvin and Family Security Services premises in Durban North. The ruling, delivered on 17 March, found that the application lacked urgency and ordered Mathibeli to pay the legal costs of the SAPS. The inspection conducted on 19 March under Operation Buyisa formed part of a nationwide police initiative targeting illegal firearms and enforcing regulations for private security firms and dealers.
