Organisers sue former Mr Gay World
Publish date: 15 August 2022
Issue Number: 990
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: General
A South African television presenter and activist who resigned as Mr Gay World 2021 two months into his reign has vowed never to enter another pageant after the organisers slapped him with a defamation lawsuit for speaking out against their alleged lack of transparency. A report on Sunday Times site notes that a legal battle is playing out between Louw Breytenbach, crowned in October last year, and Gay World Events, the Gay World Foundation and its co-founders John-Louis O’Neil and Johann Dion van Niekerk. The foundation is seeking an order from the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) for 31-year-old Breytenbach to retract statements he made to the media regarding his short tenure as Mr Gay World. The organisation is also suing his publicist, Gavin Prins. Breytenbach and Prins are opposing the application. The foundation said the application was launched to protect the parties ‘from future harm and to request the removal of the defamatory publications’. Breytenbach had presented evidence from previous winners ‘who all echo the same sentiments and who all have questions about transparency and inclusion matters within the pageant’.