LPM to appeal against Namdeb defamation interdict – News

The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) says it will appeal against a High Court judgment in which it was found that LPM members have repeatedly made defamatory allegations against diamond mining company Namdeb.

The LPM will appeal against the “irrational, tainted and spectacularly incompetent” judgment judge Herman Oosthuizen delivered in the Windhoek High Court on Friday, LPM spokesperson Lifalaza Simataa said in a statement released after the judgment was handed down.

In his judgement, Oosthuizen ordered that an interim interdict issued against the LPM and members of the party in May would remain in force as a final interdict.

Oosthuizen ordered the LPM, the party’s leader, Bernadus Swartbooi, its former deputy leader, Henny Seibeb, former Windhoek mayor Sade Gawanas, an LPM youth leader in the //Kharas region, Melody Swartbooi, and LPM member Easter Isaak not to make or distribute “untrue and defamatory statements” in which they have accused Namdeb and its management of crime and other misdeeds.

The judge also ordered the LPM, Swartbooi, Seibeb, Gawanas, Melody Swartbooi and Isaak to remove false and defamatory statements by the LPM and themselves about Namdeb and its management from Facebook and other social media platforms.

The LPM and other respondents should pay Namdeb’s legal costs in the matter, Oosthuizen ordered as well.

The defamatory statements were made in a petition in October last year, were distributed on social media thereafter, and were repeated during a public demonstration at Oranjemund in March this year.

Oosthuizen found that the statements made against Namdeb were defamatory and that the LPM and the party members sued by Namdeb did not show that their statements about the company and its senior management were true, in the public interest or constituted fair comment.

The LPM accused Namdeb of harassing and victimizing an employee, tax evasion and contravening the Diamond Act by letting Namdeb employees enter a restricted mining area without the required permits last August.

In an affidavit filed at the court, Namdeb chief executive Riaan Burger alleged the LPM initiated a campaign to discredit the company and its senior management after a Namdeb employee, who is also an LPM member and a member of the Oranjemund Town Council, faced disciplinary charges leveled by the company.

The employee was subsequently dismissed.

In November last year, Bernadus Swartbooi also attacked the company in the National Assembly, referring to “Namdeb mafia management”, while claiming there was “a mafia den of thieves running Namdeb”, Burger informed the court.

More accusations against Namdeb and its management were made at a press conference by the LPM last November and were then distributed on Facebook and other social media platforms.

In an answering affidavit filed at the court, Bernadus Swartbooi alleged the legal action Namdeb took against the LPM was an attempt to conceal an incident in which 12 Namdeb employees entered a restricted mining area without permits, and was aimed at gagging anyone from speaking about an incident during which an illegality may have been committed.

Swartbooi denied that the LPM had a campaign to discredit and defame Namdeb.

“However, Namdeb, like any entity in which the state has a stake, is not immune from scrutiny from elected political representatives,” Swartbooi stated as well.

Simataa commented in his statement that freedom of speech is a right that is protected in the Constitution. As a company that is half owned by the Namibian state and tasked with mining a key mineral resource like diamonds, Namdeb should be held to a higher standard than ordinary Namibians, Simataa said.