Johannesburg - Former DA mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay municipality Athol Trollip has successfully sued a former party member who accused him of racism and of murdering ANC members in Port Elizabeth during apartheid.
Trollip obtained an order in the High Court in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) on Tuesday, which allowed him to claim R250 000 from Siyabulela Mali after he made defamatory remarks about him on Facebook and in various newspapers in 2016 and 2017.
Mali was initially a DA member, but defected to the ANC after a fall-out with Trollip.
Mali wrote on Facebook that Trollip was treating his farmworkers badly and paid them R80 a month.
The court found Mali was wrong when he made the claims that Trollip was part of the security forces who were responsible for the murder of the Pebco Three. The three were anti-apartheid activists who were abducted and subsequently murdered in 1985 by members of the South African Security.
The court found that Mali, despite averring in his plea that the publication was true, failed to provide any “cogent proof that Trollip was indeed a cruel and brutal person”.