Reddell v Mineral Sands Resources
South African legal case / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reddell and Others v Mineral Sands Resources (Pty) Ltd and Others is a 2022 decision of the Constitutional Court of South Africa concerning the right of trading corporations to claim for general damages in defamation suits. A majority of the court upheld that right but qualified that it does not apply to defamation suits arising from public discourse on matters of public importance. Moreover, the court located the right as grounded in a common law personality right rather than as grounded in the Bill of Rights; in that it diverged from the Supreme Court of Appeal's opinion in Media 24 Ltd and Others v SA Taxi Securitisation.
Reddell v Mineral Sands Resources | |
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Court | Constitutional Court of South Africa |
Full case name | Christine Reddell and Others v Mineral Sands Resources Proprietary Limited and Others |
Decided | 14 November 2022 (2022-11-14) |
Docket nos. | CCT 67/21 |
Citation(s) | [2022] ZACC 38; 2023 (2) SA 404 (CC); 2023 (7) BCLR 830 (CC) |
Case history | |
Prior action(s) | Mineral Sands Resources v Reddell; Mineral Commodities v Dlamini; Mineral Commodities Limited v Clarke [2021] ZAWCHC 22 in the High Court of South Africa, Western Cape Division |
Related action(s) | Mineral Sands Resources v Reddell [2022] ZACC 37 |
Court membership | |
Judges sitting | Kollapen J, Madlanga J, Majiedt J, Mathopo J, Mhlantla J, Theron J, Tshiqi J, Mlambo AJ, and Unterhalter AJ |
Case opinions | |
Save for where the speech forms part of public discourse on issues of public interest, and at the discretion of the court, trading corporations can claim general damages for defamation. | |
Decision by | Majiedt J (Madlanga, Mathopo, Mhantla, Theron, Tshiqi, and Mlambo concurring) |
Dissent | Unterhalter AJ (Kollapen concurring) |
Keywords | |
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The case was heard on 17 February 2022 and decided on 14 November 2022. It is one of a pair of Constitutional Court judgements arising from a series of defamation suits laid by two mining companies against six environmental activists; the other, decided at the same time, is Mineral Sands Resources v Reddell.