Anti-mining activists score

SLAPP SUIT BID: APEX COURT GOES THROUGH PROCESSES TO DETERMINE IT AS ‘NEW CATEGORY’

They argue Australian company is attempting to silence them.

Activists attempting to argue they are being silenced by an Australian mining company are one step closer to making legal history. The group, made up of environmental lawyers, community activists and commentators, yesterday received clarity on what they are arguing is a Strategic Litigation against Public Participation (SLAPP) suit being instituted against them in the Constitutional Court (ConCourt).

The suit concerns three separate cases in which Mineral Commodities (MRC), its South African subsidiary Mineral Sands Resources (MSR) and a company BEE partner and former Mbizana mayor Zamile Qunya claim six defendants defamed them.

The defendants are Wild Coast community activist Mzamo Dlamini, environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan, former Centre for Environmental Rights attorneys Christine Reddell and Tracey Davies, Lutzville activist and journalist Davine Cloete and social worker and author John GI Clarke, who allegedly made defamatory statements in the media more than five years ago.

They are being sued collectively for R14.25 million. They responded with two special pleas, one being that the accusations constitute a SLAPP suit.

This means actions brought against them were for “the ulterior purpose of discouraging, censoring, intimidating and silencing the applicants and the public in relation to public criticism of the mining companies”, court papers read. More common overseas, SLAPP suits have until now not been recognised as a specific category of abuse. Cullinan said the ConCourt went through processes to determine it yesterday as a “new category”.

The court said both the motive and merits of the case were relevant to determine if it was a SLAPP suit. The plaintiffs, MRC, MSR and Qunya, said because a SLAPP suit defence did not exist in SA law, the special plea brought by the applicants did not disclose a defence. This was dismissed by the court.

The applicants now have 30 days to amend arguments that the accusations of the plaintiffs constitute a SLAPP suit, and must include merit and motive in the amendment. Cullinan believes the facts will prove the SLAPP suit stands.

MSR and MRC want to extract millions of tons of rare minerals from the Xolobeni coast. The High Court in Pretoria ruled mining could only take place if the community consented – and this has torn the region apart.

Activist Sikhosiphi Rhadebe was murdered in 2016. He was chair of Amadiba Crisis Committee, a group fighting the pending mining activity. –

ConCourt went through processes to determine it as a new category