A Johannesburg coal mining company has threatened to drag an environmental watchdog group to the High Court and sue it for defamation and financial damages, sparking concern around an apparent increase in the use of corporate “Slapp” suits to intimidate critics of mining ventures.
Now the Tendele Coal Mining Company – a subsidiary of the Bryanston-based Petmin group – has sent a legal ultimatum to the Durban-based Global Environmental Trust , giving it barely 24 hours to withdraw allegedly defamatory comments about the company’s mining operations on community-owned land on the boundary of the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve.
Judge Rishi Seegobin dismissed the application, ruling that the Somkhele mine was operating legally in terms of transitional agreements that allowed companies to continue operating without having to apply for new licences following amendments to environmental and mining laws. During a case involving a property developer and a nature conservancy in 1992, US Supreme Court judge Nicholas Colabella likened Slapp suits to a deliberate tactic to stretch out litigation and to foist crippling legal costs on activist groups, often on frivolous grounds.
On Wednesday night, Tendele legal representative Hulme Scholes denied that the company was attempting to intimidate the environmental trust.No, it’s not a Slapp suit or intimidation at all. However, the company is taking legal advice from a defamation expert on this matter, and will take action accordingly, based on this advice.”The Trust, and others, have been making statements similar to those annexed to your correspondence for many years.
Citing a previous defamation claim involving Anglo Platinum Limited and fellow attorney Richard Spoor, Lorenzon said the court ruled that granting an interim interdict would violate Spoor’s constitutional right to free speech.
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