THE Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party threatened to hold Shoprite and Gen4 Foods accountable and make them “pay for their sins”over the death of a young child who allegedly consumed rotten polony purchased from the retailer’s store in KwaMashu, Durban.
Instead, an order granted in the Durban High Court last week, resulted in the EFF being held accountable for inflammatory statements made by the party about the Thompsons chicken polony that supposedly caused the child’s death.
Judge Robin Mossop granted a costs order against the EFF on a “punitive scale”, in favour of Gen4 Foods, the company that owns the Thompson Tasty Meats brand, in handing judgement.
“The sinner was, in fact, neither Gen4 Foods nor Shoprite, but the EFF,” said Mossop.
Gen4 Foods brought an urgent application in November 2023 against Anthony Hadebe, claiming to be the father of Melody Mhlongo, who had died after eating the polony he purchased, for the defamatory posts made on social media sites.
The EFF were included in the matter for taking up Hadebe’s cause and doing likewise.
The company maintained that the repeated negative statements were untrue. They asked that the respondents be interdicted and restrained from making the damaging comments on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter).
Judge Bruce Bedderson granted a consent order and the interim relief the applicants sought on December 8.
However, days before Bedderson’s judgement was delivered advocate Zandile Qono, instructed by law firm Ian Levitt Attorneys withdrew as Hadebe’s representatives, but remained as the EFF’s lawyers.
Gen4 Foods was represented by advocate Dees Ramdhani SC and instructed by McGregor Erasmus Attorneys.
When the matter came back before Mossop on September 12 he had to consider Gen4 Foods’ application to make Bedderson’s order final, while the EFF challenged it and asked that company pay their legal costs.
Mossop viewed Hadebe as the “catalyst” for the matter landing in court.
He made a series of social media posts and encouraged followers to share his messages so that “justice” could be brought against the company.
He asked the EFF to assist and the party responded with a post on November 1, 2023, threatening to make those responsible pay for their sins because a child died and six members of the family were ill.
Mossop was at odds with the utterance that the family members were still ill (November 1) because Hadebe informed Shoprite on August 15 that the family had become unwell after consuming the polony.
“It would be extraordinary if, six weeks later, Hadebe’s family were still seriously ill and vomiting,” said Mossop.
The EFF followed up with more posts and the party’s interview with a TV channel was circulated, and the Sunday Tribune also reported on the allegations made by the respondents, all of which attracted “sympathetic” public support.
Mossop questioned the newspaper’s decision to publish an unverified story with no evidence to support the allegations made by the respondents.
To prove they were not at fault, Gen4 Foods engaged the services of an accredited laboratory to test the pathogen load in the complaint sample.
“No distinct indicators that it was contaminated with illness causing bacteria or toxins”, was the lab’s finding.
A professor with a PhD in microbiology was engaged by Gen4 Foods for a second opinion.
The professor found the hygienic criteria counts in the said polony to be normal and there was an absence of salmonella and other harmful bacteria.
Melody’s biological father’s affidavit provided further clarity on the exact cause of the child’s death, contrary to what Hadebe and the EFF publicised.
He confirmed the child died from natural causes, which stemmed from teething difficulties.
Hadebe entered into a relationship with Melody’s mother after she separated from the father.
The newspaper responded by printing an apology and retracted its previous article.
The EFF remained unrepentant for its actions, believing they were justified as they responded with posts based on what Hadebe told them and complied with Bedderson’s provisional order.
Mossop took umbrage with EFF’s stance of not taking steps to verify Hadebe’s claims, which had “obvious inconsistencies” and changing versions.
“It is to the shame of the EFF that it considered it acceptable to seize upon the death of a young child and assimilate it into its election campaign and make political capital out of it.
“Granting of a final interdict is justified as the EFF has palpably demonstrated that it had no defence to the allegations made about its conduct,”said Mossop.
Hadebe declined to comment and the EFF did not respond.