Australian Mining Firm’s SLAPP Case Goes to South Africa ConCourt

A defamation case brought by an Australian company mining on the West Coast and Xolobeni against activists and environmentalists will be heard in the Constitutional Court, John Yeld of GroundUp reports. The High Court has accepted the defendants’ argument that the claim against them is a SLAPP case, an acronym for Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation.

The Constitutional Court will deliberate on the validity of the SLAPP defence in South African law, and on the requirements for defaming a juristic person, such as a corporation.

The long-running U.S.$933,653 defamation action against six South African activists in pursuit of two mining ventures – an attempt to mine titanium in Xolobeni on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape province and the Tormin mineral sands project on the West Coast in the Western Cape – put new emphasis on potential environmental damage caused by heavy industry, as seen by court cases surrounding sesimic scanning off the nation’s coast.