Arrest warrant for comedian
Karou Charou violates protection order
THE Estcourt Magistrate’s Court has issued a warrant of arrest for comedian Sagren Madhevan Moodley, who goes by the stage name Karou Charou. This after Moodley violated an interim protection order that had been issued against him.
The protection order, which falls under the Protection from Harassment Act, was obtained by an Estcourt businesswoman in March this year.
She claimed that Moodley targeted her online. He allegedly called her a murderer during a live video on his Facebook page, referred to her using vulgar language and made threats of a sexual nature against her.
The woman said Moodley verbally attacked her after she spoke out against the Park by the Pozi campaign in December last year.
The campaign was organised by a group called the National Indian Congress of South Africa. They encouraged Indian South Africans living in Durban to boycott shopping malls and big business in Durban for a day so as to demonstrate the buying power of the community.
Moodley, who was the spokesperson of the organisation, also asked supporters to donate R100 toward the campaign.
The aim of the campaign was to highlight the marginalisation of the Indian community in South Africa.
At the time, several prominent South Africans who had been a part of the Struggle against apartheid, criticised the campaign on the basis that it was racist and dangerous.
The woman, who asked not to be named for fear of further abuse, said she had also criticised the campaign.
“In December, I shared this opinion on a group on Facebook that was discussing the campaign. A few days later, I was invited to join another Facebook group called Karou Charou a Fraudster and Racist, which I did. On this platform, I questioned whether Karou Charou had a Section 18A certificate which is required by law to fund-raise.”
The woman claimed that a few weeks later, Moodley embarked on a campaign to single her out and belittle her online.
“My comment clearly hit a nerve. He called me a hater on one of his live feeds. A Facebook page using my name and the words ‘toxic woman’ alongside it was started. Here his followers posted nasty comments about me.”
In February this year, during a live Facebook video, Moodley apparently referred to the woman as a murderer.
“In the video he accused me of killing Kavitha Nerputh, a businesswoman from Pietermaritzburg, who was found dead in her car in January 2020. He called me a murderer and made it seem as though I was responsible for her death. I began receiving calls from business clients, family, and friends questioning me about the post.”
The woman said that while the video had since been deleted, she felt she needed to speak out.
“This is cyberbullying. I have a son who goes to school. A post like this will have a severe impact on him. It is even traumatic for Kavitha’s children to see something like this on social media. He never thought about the effect this would have on the people involved. He just wanted hits and thought everything was a joke.”
The woman said she reported him to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) regarding the Park by the Pozi campaign. She also opened a criminal charge of defamation against him at the Estcourt police station. Furthermore, she applied for a protection order against him. She was granted interim relief in March this year.
In terms of the protection order, Moodley was ordered to remove any posts about her. However, he did not do this and on April 1, indicated his intention to oppose the interim protection order. The matter was adjourned until April 20 for Moodley to file his opposing papers, but his attorney, Preggy Naicker, asked for an extension which was granted until May.
However, during the hearing on April 20, the woman informed the court that Moodley had not removed the posts about her.
The magistrate found that he was in contravention of the protection order and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Colonel Thembeka Mbele, a provincial police spokesperson, said: “We can confirm that the Estcourt Magistrate’s Court issued a warrant of arrest for violation of a protection order against Sagren Madhevan Moodley."
Mbele said the Estcourt SAPS was also investigating a case of defamation against Moodley.
Meanwhile, Jackson Mzila, from the SAHRC, confirmed it had received a complaint involving Moodley.
Mzila said the commission had conducted a preliminary assessment to determine whether Moodley’s conduct amounted to incitement and/or whether the impugned utterances by Moodley fell under hate speech.
“Part of the assessment included a telephonic consultation with Moodley. To that end, kindly note that in our preliminary assessment we could not come to the conclusion that Moodley’s conduct and utterances amounted to incitement and hate speech respectively.
“However, we will be addressing correspondence to Moodley where we will put all the allegations to him and request that he provide a formal response.”