It is third time unlucky for Freddie Nyathela of the South African Roadies Association, who has unrelentingly attacked and publicly slandered the National Arts Council of South Africa and management on social media platforms.
The court has found him on two previous occasions to be in contempt of a previous court order in which he was interdicted from bad mouthing the National Arts Council of South Africa. He, however, continued with his social media campaign and now has to spend 60 days behind bars.
The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, found that there was no excuse for Nyathela’s continued posting on social media, with the gist of the posts claiming that the National Arts Council is corrupt.
The National Arts Council of South Africahas been involved in a legal battle with Nyathela and South African Roadies Association over many years regarding his postings on social media.
The National Arts Council of South Africa earlier instituted legal action against Nyathela for wrongly and unfairly attacking and slandering it, its chairperson, members of council, management and staff publicly on various platforms.
In September 2018, the National Arts Council of South Africa won a court case against Nyathela which interdicted him and South African Roadies Association from publishing defamatory statements concerning the entity.
Despite the ruling, Nyathela continued to defy the court order which led to the matter being taken further, which resulted in two previous findings that he was in contempt of court.
While he was previously given a lifeline with suspended sentences, and a fine, Acting Judge J Beyers now committed him to 60 days imprisonment.
This was subsequent to yet another urgent application by the National Arts Council of South Africa that Nyathela simply soldiered ahead, despite the court order granted against him in 2018.
Nyathela has over the years vigorously fought all the applications against him and he also tried to appeal some of the orders.
He also defended this application to commit him to imprisonment on various grounds, including that the matter is not urgent and that the interim CEO of the National Arts Council of South Africa did not have the authority to launch these proceedings.
Nyathela also argued that the National Arts Council of South Africa has failed to make out a case against him for contempt of court. He said the postings on social media on which the applicant is relying to hold him in contempt, are “totally different from the previous events” which were the subject-matter of the previous applications.
He said his recent social media postings regarding the National Arts Council of South Africa are neither defamatory of the applicant (on the basis that the applicant as an organ of state cannot sue for defamation) nor unlawful, as it represented the exercise of his right to free expression.
Judge Beyers said it is important to appreciate from the outset that the initial court order specifically directed the removal of the offending statements referred to in the application and also interdicted the dissemination and publication of defamatory statements including the same or similar statements as those forming the subject matter of the application.
“It is clear from a comparison of the statements that formed the subject-matter of the initial application, and those that form the subject-matter of the instant application, that the statements in the instant application are the same or similar to those that formed the subject-matter of the initial application,” the judge said.
Judge Beyers added that neither the suspended sentence nor the earlier fine imposed on Nyathela have been effective in achieving his compliance with the order.
“Court orders must be obeyed. If the impression were to be created that court orders are not binding, or can be flouted with impunity, the future of the Judiciary, and the rule of law, would be bleak,” he said.
The judge said a stint of 60 days behind bars is fitting, given the brazen manner in which Nyathela has flouted the provisions of the order and the absence of any remorse.
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Pretoria News