With two contempt of court orders against him and a stint in jail for not adhering to a court order issued six years ago to stop bad-mouthing the Liberty Group and some of its employees, a man has now earned himself a third contempt order, coupled with a year in jail if he did not desist.
The Liberty Group once again turned to the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, as it said Bob Mano will simply not refrain from sending hundreds of emails to hundreds of recipients, in which he is making defamatory remarks about them.
Some include excessively vulgar language and suggestions regarding family members of some Liberty executives.
The court interdicted Mano in 2018 to stop these emails and remarks. Yet, Mano has forged on.
He earlier received a 12-month jail sentence for contempt of court, of which 10 months were suspended, which left him to serve two months in jail if he did not stop.
He did not stop and served two months in jail and was only released at the end of last month.
But Liberty now turned to court for the third time for a contempt order, coupled with direct imprisonment of a year. Part of the interdict granted was that he may not make verbal and physical threats against Liberty, its employees or their families.
But Liberty said Mano is forging ahead with his “derogatory and abusive emails”, with his latest emails containing threats of harm and death to representatives of the applicant (Liberty), as well as to the group’s lawyers.
In an attempt to protect its employees, the applicant has placed a block on emails coming from email addresses recognisably connected to Mano. But realising he has been blocked, he has created multiple different email addresses, Liberty told the court.
It said his current list of email recipients totals about 500 people.
He has sent hundreds of emails in contravention of the 2018 order and subsequent contempt of court orders. Most of them badmouth Liberty and its executives, but some also contain vulgar messages about his desires regarding one of their daughters.
Judge Leonie Windell said it is evident from the contents of Mano’s answering affidavit that he maintained an ongoing and contentious relationship with the applicant since 2017.
The source of his grievance is the slogan on banners used by Liberty in an advertising campaign.
He accused the applicant of using his words on the banners and in the advertising campaign without his consent.
As a result, he demanded that he be given credit for the campaign idea which seemingly included compensation from Liberty.
He at first engaged with Liberty via emails regarding the matter, which he said were simply ignored by the group. Mano said that instead of engaging with him, Liberty obtained an interdict against him.
Mano explained that his emails serve as a form of therapy and that he manages his trauma by articulating his experiences in writing. He accused Liberty of exploiting the court as a pawn to issue orders to silence him.
According to him, he did not contravene the 2018 court order, as the latest emails were not sent to Liberty or its officials, but to other recipients.
But Judge Windell said he is clearly in contempt as he is still making derogatory remarks about Liberty and its employees. The judge was, however, not willing to immediately send him back to court as he had barely been released following his previous stint in jail for contempt. She said this is in the hope that his experience in prison had a salutary and sobering effect on him and that he will be able to turn over a new leaf.
She gave him a lifeline by sentencing him to one year in jail, suspended for five years.
Pretoria News