Durban - The University of Zululand’s (UniZulu) vice chancellor has approached the Durban High Court to obtain an interdict forcing a former employee to stop making “defamatory and false” claims about her in the media.Professor Xoliswa Mtose filed a founding affidavit with the Durban High Court on February 9, a copy of which is in ANA’s possession.
In the affidavit, Mtose asked the court to rule that former lecturer and former National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) university shop-steward Hlakaniphani Jamile be “restrained from publishing or causing to be published any defamatory and/or false statements in any local, national, or international media platform” against Mtose and the university.
Mtose said, among the claims Jamile made, was that she had committed a number of criminal offences, was dishonest, that she and the university lacked credibility in the higher education sector, that the university was poorly managed, and that UniZulu’s bachelor of education degree was fraudulent.
Mtose said Jamile was dismissed from the university after a disciplinary inquiry and hearing found him guilty of “various acts of gross misconduct and dishonesty” and it was shortly after this that he opened a case of fraud and corruption against her and the university at Mtunzini police station.
Mtose asked that the statement made to the Mtunzini South African Police Service (SAPS) be declared defamatory and that Jamile publicly apologise for a news report that appeared in The Sowetan in November 2016, based on the same statement.
As proof of further defamatory allegations Mtose also referred to a recent article in The Mercury, which claimed that specialised crime-fighting unit the Hawks was investigating her.
In the article, KwaZulu-Natal Hawks spokesman Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo confirmed that the Durban commercial crime unit was investigating Mtose.
The Mercury article led to a full-page advertisement being taken out in the Sunday Times by UniZulu in which Mtose denied being under investigation by the Hawks and claimed Jamile’s statements had been proven to be “unequivocally false”.
Mtose also asked in the affidavit that a report submitted to Parliament’s higher education and training portfolio committee, signed by Jamile on a Nehawu letterhead, be deemed defamatory.
Nehawu has also been cited as a respondent despite a letter sent to the university in December stating that Jamile had acted in his personal capacity regardless of his use of union stationery.
“[Jamile’s] statements and the publishing thereof have damaged [UniZulu] and my reputation; we have been tainted in the public eye and I cannot be taken seriously either by my staff or fellow academics in my sector,” she said in the affidavit.
Mtose said she was now in the process of "remedying the damage done to the university and myself through the implementation of relationship-building exercises internally with staff and students and publishing the successes of the university in the public media”.
“Should [Jamile] not be interdicted from continuing to make and/or publish and/or cause to be published defamatory statement about [UniZulu] and myself then these processes will be futile and the damage already caused will persist and our reputations will be damaged forever which would hinder me from ever finding credibility as an academic institute leader and [UniZulu] from being perceived to the credible higher learning institute that it is,” said Mtose.
While Jamile was employed at the university all the disciplinary steps allowed were taken against him as well as criminal charges being laid.
“It is the belief of the applicants that it was this very disciplinary action against [Jamile] which caused him to retaliate in the manner he did by opening a criminal case against me,” said Mtose.
Civil action for damages would be instituted but “pending finalisation of such action the applicants seek [an] interim order interdicting and restraining [Jamile] from making further defamatory statement against [UniZulu] and myself”, she said.
The application for the interdict is to be heard in April.