ConCourt urges rethink on defamation law

In a judgment handed down yesterday, Sachs said damage awards measured human dignity, reputation and honour as if these were ‘marketplace commodities’ when the greatest prize would be to walk away, head high, knowing that even the defamer had acknowledged the injustice of the slur. A report in The Mercury notes his comments, made in a separate, minority judgment, came in the wake of a ruling by the court, which, he said, illustrated the limitations of compensating an injury to a person’s good name with a monetary award. Sachs said in trying to evade responsibility for his grossly excessive use of a municipal cellphone, the Mayor of the Southern District Council of the North West Province, David Dikoko, had uttered ‘manifestly silly and self-serving words’ to the Public Accounts Standing Committee about Municipal Manager Thupi Mokhatla. Mokhatla sued for defamation in the Pretoria High Court and was awarded damages of R110 000. Dikoko’s appeal to the Constitutional Court was dismissed yesterday. Although the court ruled in favour of Mokhatla, Sachs argues that, while Mokhatla was entitled to a retraction of the slur and an apology, he was not entitled to R110 000. Full report in The Mercury Judgment