Six South African activists and public interest lawyers have filed revised papers in their marathon legal battle against a collective R14.25-million “Slapp” defamation case brought against them by Australian mining interests.handed down by the Constitutional Court, which for the first time in South African legal history set out parameters for defence against Slapp suits, and also prescribed limits on defamation action brought by for-profit trading corporations.
Two of the six defendants were employed by the CER as environmental lawyers at the time of the alleged defamation. The defendants’ second special plea — that “for-profit” trading corporations cannot sue for general damages in defamation cases — has also been amended.The Constitutional Court found that such corporations can sue for general damages, but not where the allegedly defamatory speech forms part of public discussion on issues of legitimate public interest. This is because awarding such damages would constitute an unjustifiable limitation on the right to freedom of speech.
There is as yet no indication of whether or when the proposed amendments to the defendants’ special pleas will be opposed by the plaintiffs. He pointed out that, until now, there had been agreement between all the parties that the issues before court would be dealt with collectively as a matter of convenience. However, there were actually three separate defamation cases, and collective agreement might not extend to the trial stage.Currently, there was no indication of when the trial or trials would be set down for hearing, Kudo added.
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