Liberty asked the High Court in Johannesburg to impose a sentence of direct imprisonment on a man who repeatedly violated court orders restraining him from sending “derogatory and threatening” emails to the group’s executives, as well as to employees of other financial services companies.
According to Bob Sihle Mano, his contentious relationship with Liberty dates to 2017. He alleged the group used his words on banners and in an advertising campaign without his consent. He felt entitled to credit and possibly compensation, but Liberty refused. He therefore decided to “correspond” with Liberty via email “to resolve the matter”.
In October 2018, Liberty obtained a court order to interdict and restrain Mano from:
- sending vulgar, obscene, abusive, threatening, or derogatory correspondence to Liberty and its employees, including members of its executive management team;
- making verbal and physical threats against Liberty, its employees, or their families;
- causing physical harm to Liberty, its employees, or their families; and
- defaming or making untrue statements about Liberty or its employees.
Mano was found in contempt of the 2018 order twice: once in February 2019 (resulting in a suspended six-month prison sentence) and again in August 2023 (resulting in a 12-month sentence, with 10 months suspended).
In an urgent application brought in June this year, Liberty asserted that despite being found in contempt of court twice and being sentenced to a period of direct imprisonment, Mano has persisted with his “derogatory and abusive emails”.
Liberty said some of the emails were aimed at its chief executive, Yuresh Maharaj, and contained sexually inappropriate and offensive references to his daughter.
It alleged the latest emails escalated to containing “threats of harm and death” to Liberty’s representatives.
According to Liberty, Mano also targeted Liberty’s attorneys, often instructing the law firm to forward his emails to Liberty. It said Mano also contacted its employees, forcing the company to block his emails. This apparently led to Mano’s creating multiple new email addresses to bypass these blocks.
Liberty alleged that Mano sent hundreds of emails between the service of the court order on 23 August 2023 and his incarceration on 20 May 2024 (to serve the two months’ imprisonment imposed on him in the 2023 order). Some of the emails sent by Mano were attached to Liberty’s founding affidavit in support of the application.
Liberty said that on 21 September 2023, Mano sent an email to more than 60 recipients, including employees of Standard Bank, Capitec Bank, Sanlam, and Discovery. Two days later, he sent another email to more 60 recipients, including the chief executives of various prominent companies.
By 10 May 2024, his email distribution list had grown to nearly 500 recipients, again including people from various financial companies.
As a result, Liberty sought an order that the remaining, suspended period of 10 months of the 2023 order be imposed on Mano and that he be committed to jail for this period. In addition, it sought an order that a further period of 12 months’ imprisonment, or such period as the court deemed appropriate, be imposed.
Struggle to enforce the court order
Liberty’s application described how it battled to have the 2023 court order enforced.
Its forensics department managed to trace Mano to an address in Benoni in January 2024. The South African Police Service (SAPS) apprehended Mano and transported him to Modderbee Prison to serve his sentence. But the individual in charge informed Liberty that Mano could not be processed and imprisoned in the absence of specific fingerprint identification forms.
Mano was taken back to the Benoni police station, but the police refused to render any assistance and to provide the necessary fingerprint identification forms.
Mano was then transported to the Hillbrow police station, where Liberty had previously instituted charges of crimen injuria against him. He was held there overnight and taken to the Hillbrow Magistrate’s Court the next morning.
Liberty said the senior prosecutor declined to prosecute Mano for crimen injuria, asserting there was insufficient evidence to warrant criminal prosecution. The prosecutor and officials at the Magistrate’s Court also declined to provide any assistance or take any action to enforce the 2023 order and the arrest warrant issued in its wake. Mano was subsequently released.
Liberty alleged that Mano’s arrest and temporary detention did not have any deterrent effect. He resumed his email campaign on 25 January 2024 until he was apprehended on 17 May 2024 and taken to the Boksburg Department of Correctional Services to serve his sentence in terms of the 2023 order.
Mano’s submissions
In his answering papers and oral submissions, Mano acknowledged that he sent the emails, but he denied that he violated the 2018 court order. This is because the emails were sent to other recipients rather than Liberty. He contended that all the remarks he made in the emails were accurate, and as a result, they were not defamatory, harassing, or objectionable.
Among other things, Mano told the court that:
- His emails serve as a form of therapy, and he manages his trauma by articulating his experiences in writing.
- The 2018 order was obtained through deception because Liberty made wilful and intentional fraudulent statements under oath to persuade the court to grant the order.
- He is a poet and a writer of erotic literature, and his emails should be interpreted in this context. He employs sarcasm, which Liberty is unable to understand.
- Liberty complained about the contents of his emails only because it is offended by his romantic interest in a woman of Indian descent (referring to Maharaj’s daughter).
- He did not make any threat of violence.
- He is a religious person and wants to perform an exorcism on Liberty’s employees.
- He was receiving medication for bipolar disorder.
Ongoing contempt of court
In a decision handed down last week, Judge Leonie Windell found that Mano wilfully and deliberately breached the 2018 and 2023 court orders.
Until his rearrest on 17 May 2024, Mano was sending emails to about 500 people daily, sometimes sending two or three emails in a day. These emails demonstrated further and ongoing contempt of court. They also indicated that he had no intention of abiding by the terms of the 2018, 2019, or 2023 orders.
Mano’s defamatory and derogatory assaults against Liberty were extremely detrimental to its business and reputation, Judge Windell said.
“The applicant’s reputation, as well as the physical and mental well-being of its senior staff members, associates, and their families, are adversely affected by the transmission of these emails to representatives of other prominent business institutions, regulatory bodies, and government departments.”
Despite this and finding that Mano treated the court’s orders with “utmost contempt”, Judge Windell declined to impose a sentence of direct imprisonment, as sought by Liberty.
“Although contempt of court is a common law crime, one of the objects of contempt proceedings is to get him to adhere to the court order. In the present matter, I am of the view that it is the principal object. A court should be loath to restrict the personal liberty of the individual in matter of this kind,” she said.
Judge Windell said Mano, in his answering affidavit, expressed his shock and disbelief that he had been sent to prison for his actions.
She did not believe that a purely punitive order would be appropriate under the circumstances, or that it would be just and fair to impose direct imprisonment and put the suspended sentence into operation at this stage.
“I believe so, in the hope that his experience in prison had a salutary and sobering effect on the respondent, and that he will be able to turn over a new leaf.”
Judge Windell ordered that the suspended sentence of 10 months’ imprisonment imposed in August 2023 be further suspended for five years on condition that Mano does not breach the 2018 order during the period of suspension.
Mano was also ordered to pay Liberty’s costs on a party-and-party scale.
