Klay: Singer gets interdict

2008-02-14 07:45

Leon-Ben Lamprecht and Le Roux Schoeman

Cape Town - Singer Jurie Els succeeded on Wednesday night in a bid to get an urgent interdict against Media24, concerning an article appearing this week in Huisgenoot and You magazines.

In the article pop star Robbie Klay talks openly and names "the uncle" who allegedly sexually molested him for several years.

Acting Judge RT Sutherland of the Witwatersrand Provincial Division of the High Court approved an interim interdict which ruled that Media24 Pty Ltd and Izelle Venter, Gauteng editor of Huisgenoot were not permitted to publish the article.

The respondent in the urgent application was named as Christiaan Jurie Els.

The application was not heard behind closed doors and there was no order issued that Els could not be identified.

Judge Sutherland gave Els permission to submit an application for a final interdict within ten court days. After that Media24 has ten court days to respond to the matter.

A decision on the costs of the application will stand over until the final application has been dealt with.

The application was heard by Judge Sutherland at his home early on Wednesday evening. He heard the arguments by telephone.

Huisgenoot and You editor Esmare Weideman said on Wednesday night that after careful consideration publication of the article would be allowed, but the singer could not be named.

Surprise over interdict

"We were surprised by the interdict, since the Appeal Court ruled recently that the media could not be silenced by means of an interdict, because there was always the option to sue for libel after publication," she said.

It was even more surprising that the interdict was granted by the Witwatersrand Provincial Division of the High Court, because Media24's head office fell under the Cape Provincial Division of the High Court.

"In view of the fact that at least two other people had come forward after publication of the media reports of sexual molestation by the same singer, Huisgenoot deemed it to be in the public interest to go ahead with publication of the article."

While a possible eyewitness has refused to reveal the identity of "the uncle", the internet jury's already out on his identity.

On the social networking site Facebook, a group has formed who openly finger a well-known figure in the South African entertainment industry, and the forum has dubbed him "South Africa's Michael Jackson".

A gossip site entitled bosparra.com has a satirical tribute to "the uncle". His name is next to a photo of him.

Although most of the cyber opinion-mongers are anonymous, they're skating on thin ice, said Lance Michaelson, an information technology attorney from Cape Town.

Defamation of character laws are the same on the internet as they are in print, Michaelson said.

The "uncle's" cellphone on Wednesday night responded with the standard "The subscriber you have dialled is not available at present."

Meanwhile the Facebook group had grown to some 68 members by late Wednesday night.

Die Burger reported earlier that Klay was ten years old when the sexual abuse began and the deeds included oral sex, masturbation up to three times a day, pornography and videos of a naked Klay.

Klay refers to the man as "the uncle".

- Die Burger