LPM appeals against Namdeb’s defamation ban – News

The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) says it will appeal a Supreme Court ruling that found LPM members had repeatedly made defamatory allegations against diamond mining company Namdeb.

The LPM will appeal the “irrational, tainted and downright incompetent” verdict delivered by Judge Herman Oosthuizen at the Windhoek High Court on Friday, LPM spokesperson Lifalaza Simataa said in a statement released after the verdict was delivered.

In his ruling, Oosthuizen ruled that a provisional ban issued in May against the LPM and party members would remain in force as a permanent ban.

Oosthuizen ordered the LPM, party leader Bernadus Swartbooi, former vice-chairman Henny Seibeb, former mayor of Windhoek 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” accusing Namdeb and her management of criminality and other offences.

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

The LPM and other defendants must pay Namdeb’s legal costs in this case, Oosthuizen also ordered.

The defamatory statements were made in a petition in October last year, then spread via social media and repeated during a public demonstration in Oranjemund in March this year.

Oosthuizen ruled that the statements against Namdeb were defamatory and that LPM and the party members sued by Namdeb had failed to demonstrate that their statements about the company and its senior management were true, in the public interest or constituted fair commentary.

The LPM accused Namdeb of harassing and victimizing a worker, tax evasion and violating the Diamond Act by allowing Namdeb workers to enter a restricted mining area without the required permits last August.

In an affidavit filed with the court, Namdeb CEO Riaan Burger alleged that LPM had launched a campaign to discredit the company and its senior management after a Namdeb employee, who is also an LPM member and member of the Oranjemund municipal council, was issued disciplinary charges by the company.

The employee was subsequently fired.

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

During a press conference of the LPM in November last year, more accusations were made against Namdeb and her management. These accusations were then spread on Facebook and other social media.

In an affidavit filed with the court, Bernadus Swartbooi alleged that the legal action taken by Namdeb against the LPM was an attempt to cover up an incident in which 12 Namdeb employees entered a restricted mining area without a permit. The action was intended to silence everyone and prevent them from talking about an incident in which an illegality may have been committed.

Swartbooi denied that the LPM was conducting a campaign to discredit and smear Namdeb.

“However, like any entity in which the state has an interest, Namdeb is not immune from oversight by elected political representatives,” Swartbooi said.

Simataa noted in his statement that freedom of expression is a right protected by the constitution. As a company half-owned by the Namibian state and charged with mining a major mineral resource such as diamonds, Namdeb should be held to a higher standard than ordinary Namibians, Simataa said.