THE PRETORIA woman who badmouthed a prominent Bloemfontein businessman and his wife on Facebook found herself in hot water when the couple approached the court to have their names cleared and the social media posts removed.
Amanda Erasmus was ordered to stop the offending posts and unconditionally and publicly apologise to Hendrik and Loraine Bergh on her Facebook page.
The couple turned to the Pretoria high court for help after Erasmus started a so-called smear campaign against them on social media.
At the centre of all the unpleasantness is a laundry business called Snow White Laundry.
Hendrik bought the business from Erasmus in December 2017. He said she told him the turnover would be R905 000 in six months. However, after seven months the turnover was R375 118.10.
She, on the other hand, is bitter as he did not pay her the full amount he promised he would for the business.
Hendrik stated in court papers that when he bought the laundromat, he agreed to pay Erasmus R650000 in instalments of R27000 a month.
But as time went by, he realised the turnover was nowhere near what she promised it would be.
While at first glance her books seemed to reflect that that was what she had made, he discovered that she did not disclose to him that the business had lost anchor clients.
Hendrik paid Erasmus R310 767 as he claimed she defrauded him.
This sparked the Facebook campaign in which she warned others against him and his business tactics.
Hendrik said she had also tainted the good name of his wife, also a businesswoman, by calling her dishonest.
In one of the posts Erasmus said she was declared medically unfit to work and needed the money but the Bergh’s refused to pay her.
Earasmus said “these people are mean” and she “warned everyone not to do business with them”.
She also questioned how they could “rob a medically unfit woman”.
She posted that Loraine was at some stage “Mrs Bloemfontein Style”.