Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Babalwa Lobishe’s urgent application to interdict former GOOD regional leader Siyanda Mayana for posting “defamatory” posts on social media against her has been struck off the roll.
Acting judge Shirley Tilana-Mabece also ordered Lobishe to pay costs while delivering her judgment in the Gqeberha high court yesterday.
Lobishe had been seeking an urgent final order from the court to instruct Mayana to remove his post and apologise unconditionally.
Mayana had published posts alleging that several deposits — some amounting to hundreds of thousands of rand — had been made into Lobishe’s bank account in December.
He reported the allegations to the police station.
However, Lobishe rejected the accusations, saying she welcomed any lawful review of her accounts. Mayana told Sowetan’s sister newspaper The Herald on yesterday that he was vindicated.
“The mayor thought going to court was going to silence me.
“The reason she went to the high court was to intimidate me.
“I’ve always indicated that there is nothing wrong with my posts. I was raising issues I believe are valid,” Mayana said.
He said he would not have done it without his legal counsel, advocate Sihle Mzileni, and thanked everyone who had been supportive.
“My advocate was not scared to fight with the system. It was brave for my counsel to take up this case,” he said.
Calls and text messages to Lobishe went unanswered on Thursday.
Tilana-Mabece’s judgment follows arguments that were held virtually on Wednesday.
During those proceedings, Mayana submitted that Lobishe had abused motion court processes.
The matter was initially heard on Tuesday last week.
That day, acting judge Nomthandazo Ntlama-Makhanya granted an interim order in favour of Lobishe against Mayana until the matter has been finalised.
Following the interim order, the matter was postponed several times for a number of reasons. The Herald
