Security company boss Calvin Mathibeli has 24 hours to retract statements in which he linked KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi to the security industry and taxi underworld.
Mathibeli lost an appeal on Tuesday against a ruling by judge Sanele Hlatshwayo, who found that Mathibeli had made defamatory statements about Mkhwanazi in media interviews and social media posts.
Last year Mkhwanazi exposed a sophisticated crime syndicate, alleging that it had infiltrated law enforcement and the criminal justice system, as well as political interference. His allegations led to the appointment of a commission of inquiry to investigate the allegations.
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“The respondent is ordered to remove, delete and retract all defamatory publications concerning the applicant from all social media platforms, websites and digital media within 24 hours of service of this order,” the judge said.
“Where the respondent has repeated these defamatory statements on TV or radio interviews, the respondent is ordered to publicly, and on the same platforms, retract such statements.”
In the interviews, Mathibeli claimed Mkhwanazi was linked to Matibeli’s rivals who were plotting to have the last-mentioned killed.
The respondent is ordered to remove, delete and retract all defamatory publications concerning the applicant from all social media platforms, websites and digital media within 24 hours of service of this order.
— Judge Sanele Hlatshwayo
Tuesday’s ruling enforces a court order delivered in February that interdicts Mathibeli from publishing, repeating or disseminating any statements alleging or implying that Mkhwanazi is corrupt, abuses police authority and issues instructions to kill persons or participates in unlawful killings.
Police raided Mathibeli’s security firm offices and home in KwaZulu-Natal last year and earlier this year, confiscating guns for ballistic tests. Mathibeli alleged the police were targeting him to advance his competitors’ agenda.
In an interview with the Newzroom Afrika television channel he alleged Mkhwanazi was working with his competitors and taxi bosses who planned to assassinate him.
“He [Mkhwanazi] does not work mainly for [the] private security sector, he is working with taxi people that have been targeting me. There are a lot of hits that have been put on myself. There was an assassination planned on May 15 2024 by the same people,” Mathibeli said.
Mathibeli alleged that when police raided his house they would have tried to kill him.
“It was a well-mobilised operation. These guys came there and they were pointing guns at my house. I got [a] call from my reliable source that informed me that there are police coming to assassinate me under the pretence that I failed to co-operate. I shot back at the police … [as it] is their well-known modus operandi.”
Judge Hlatshwayo found that Mathibeli’s remarks made on social platforms implied that Mkhwanazi instructs police to kill people or conduct operations with the intention of killing them.
“In my view the applicant [Mkhwanazi] acted promptly by approaching the court to protect his rights. From the evidence presented these statements continue to be shared on various social media platforms causing harm to the applicant’s reputation,” Hlatshwayo said.
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