Tiso Blackstar to defend defamation claim lodged by Fana Hlongwane

Tiso Blackstar will now be able to defend a defamation claim that was lodged against it by businessman Fana Hlongwane in 2017.

On Wednesday, the high court in Pretoria rescinded and set aside a default judgment Hlongwane obtained against the media company in March last year.

In September 2017, Hlongwane instituted legal proceedings against Tiso Blackstar when he sued for R2m for alleged defamatory statements concerning his alleged involvement in scandals concerning procurement and improper political interference in government affairs.

Hlongwane said three articles published during 2016 and 2017 on online platforms SowetanLIVE and TimesLIVE were untrue. He said the articles were intended to convey that he was dishonest and corrupt by claiming he facilitated lucrative transactions by using unlawful tactics and obtained unlawful benefits.

However, Tiso Blackstar did not defend the proceedings as it did not receive summonses sent by Hlongwane's attorneys to its offices in October 2017.

The high court only heard submissions from Hlongwane’s counsel and granted a default judgment against Tiso Blackstar. It ordered that the company pay Hlongwane R300,000, with interest and costs of the lawsuit.

Tiso Blackstar only became aware of the judgment in April last year.

The company went to court last month to argue that the March 2018 judgment obtained by Hlongwane be rescinded or cancelled.

In arguing for the cancellation of the judgment, the company denied that the statements were defamatory and contended that the trial court would be better suited to decide the issue, when the issues had been fully ventilated during a trial.

Tiso Blackstar said it had two defences in the event that Hlongwane established he was defamed by these statements.

The first was that the statements were true and publication was for the public benefit. Secondly, it was contended that publication of the statements was reasonable in the circumstances.

In rescinding the default judgment on Wednesday, Judge Ronel Tolmay said the explanation put forward  by Tiso Blackstar for its failure to defend the application by Hlongwane was adequate.

The company’s attorneys said they had advised the company’s former editor of The Times and group digital editor Andrew Trench to expect a summons after they refused to accept summons on behalf of the company in October 2017.

On February 6 last year, after still not having received any notice that summons had been served, Tiso Blackstar’s attorneys obtained the court file to confirm whether Hlongwane had taken further steps in the matter.

The court file however only contained an unstamped copy of the combined summons and did not have any case number attached to it.

“The attempts made by the attorneys to bring the summons under its attention and the efforts to trace the contents of the court file indicated an intention to attend to the matter,” Tolmay said.

She said the issues at stake in this matter were significant, not only for Tiso Blackstar as a media owner, but also for other media houses.

“The effect of not rescinding the default judgment in the circumstances of this case and in a manner concerning freedom of expression is significant. It could silence the press on matters of significant public importance and interest,” Tolmay said.

However, Tolmay ordered Tiso Blackstar to pay the costs of the rescission application, including the costs of a senior counsel, due to the circumstances that led to the default judgment.

She also ordered Tiso Blackstar to take whatever steps it considered appropriate, including filing of a plea or exception to Hlongwane’s claim, within 20 days.

Editor's Note: TimesLIVE is owned by the Tiso Blackstar Group