Student wrongly listed as rapist awarded R300 000
FOLLOWING the rape and killing of UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana, a fellow student wrongfully identified as an “assaulter and rapist” claimed damages from another student who had added his name to a list.
The student’s name appeared on a list handed out on campus and published on social media.
Mrwetyana’s death sparked outrage in 2019, and while a memorial service was held for her on campus, students distributed a list of those they regarded as women abusers and rapists on campus.
While UCT at the time distanced themselves from this and pleaded with students not to distribute the list, it found its way to social media.
The university said it had a service to assist students who fall prey to abuse and called on students to follow this process, rather than to publish random names.
The plaintiff (whose name Independent Media decided not to publish) said his life was ruined as he was seen as a women abuser and rapist, while he was totally innocent.
He turned to the Western Cape High Court, where he claimed damages against a fellow student at the time, Siphelele Nxumalo.
While Nxumalo did not turn up at court to defend the claim, the plaintiff said she told him at the time that while she did not believe he was a woman abuser, a friend asked her to add his name to the list, which she had also published on her social media accounts.
Judge Elizabeth Baartman said given the nature of gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa and the fact that the court did not want to discourage victims from reporting these cases, she went out of her way to try to afford Nxumalo the opportunity to place her side of the story before the court.
“The matter raises a number of relevant issues, and the result of these proceedings will have consequences for all involved. Importantly, the matter has a wider social context because affected persons may have many reasons to prefer not to use the UCT process.
“Importantly, these proceedings could deter survivors or victims of GBV from reporting incidents of violence and so perpetuate these soul -destroying crimes. Therefore, it was important to afford the defendant every opportunity to defend the claim against her,” the judge said.
With numerous fruitless attempts
to engage with Nxumalo, the court’s patience ran out and judgment by default was this week obtained against her. The court ordered that she had to pay the plaintiff about R300 000, which included general damages and his past and future medical expenses.
She must apologise to him within 30 days and remove the offending posts from her social media accounts.
Expert witnesses told the court the plaintiff suffered post traumatic stress disorder after his ordeal of being wrongly labelled as a woman abuser.
The plaintiff himself told the court that the false accusation had shattered him.
On September 4, 2019, the university held a highly publicised memorial service for the slain student and hundreds attended.
At that service, a list of alleged “rapists at UCT” was read out that included the plaintiff. In addition, the list was disseminated to attendees at the memorial service and made its way onto social media platforms. The list has since been circulated on the anniversary of the event.
At the time, the plaintiff was a 20-year-old final-year Bachelor of Social Science student. Although he was not present when the names of alleged perpetrators of GBV were called out, he afterwards saw a video of the event.
He said while he had no idea how his name landed there, his life of hell started. He was shunned, kicked off Whatsapp groups and people refused to associate with him any longer.
The plaintiff said he became a hermit and no longer attended lectures.
“I was very anxious. I was having panic attacks regularly … bad ones where you kind of drop and convulse. I was suicidal and I was just immobilised ... I called some suicide hot lines,” he told the court.
He said while he had no idea who added his name to the list, Nxumalo out of the blue contacted him for study notes and asked him for lunch.
The plaintiff said he was so happy that someone eventually wanted to associate with him.
“She then told me she was the one who put me on the list.”
The plaintiff said she apologised, but said one of his ex-girlfriends told her to add his name. According to him, Nxumalo said she did not want to add his name, as the girlfriend always “spoke glowingly” about him and she, too, believed in his innocence, but she did it anyway.
He said he asked her to remove his name, but she said she could not.
He eventually left UCT and went to the University of Johannesburg, as he thought life would be easier there.
Medical experts meanwhile said he is still so traumatised that he should continue with psychotherapy.
The court ordered payment of R80 000 for the harm caused to the plaintiff’s reputation, R23 279 for past medical expenses and R200 000 for future medical expenses.