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Seasoned television presenter Bonang Matheba’s former brand manager Davin Phillips is accusing her of inciting violence that could lead to him being physically harmed, following a social media storm in which Matheba allegedly called him a monster.
Phillips launched an urgent interdict application at the Johannesburg High Court on Monday, seeking to force Matheba to retract her statements made on Twitter on May 19, citing that they have put him in danger.
The tweet shown on the papers read:
He explained in his court papers that the crux of Matheba’s social media onslaught stemmed from her desire to unlawfully cancel her agreement with Phillip’s Celebrity Services Africa (CSA) to promote her luxury beverage brand House of Bonang.
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“The background facts that led to the venomous and dangerous hate campaign, which the respondent (Bonang Matheba) has embarked on are set out. On November 15 2017 in Johannesburg, the respondent and CSA concluded an agreement, styled Artist Agency Agreement … in terms of the first agency agreement. CSA was appointed by the respondent as her exclusive agent for the purposes of marketing and promoting her,” read his papers.
The statement added that the first agreement between them was terminated when it expired on November 15 2019.
He further revealed that a subsequent agreement to provide similar services for Matheba’s beverage the following year was made on February 3 2020. Matheba allegedly wanted to cancel this second agreement between them, which Phillips contended as unlawful.
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“CSA maintained that the purported cancellation was wrongful and on June 11 2021, CSA accepted the respondent’s (and BME’s - Bonang Matheba Entertainment - and BNG’s) repudiation of the second agency agreement and cancelled the agreement. These disputes have been referred to arbitration, which proceedings are currently pending before Advocate Diane Davis SC. The arbitration proceedings are by their nature confidential and, hence, I do not refer further to them in this affidavit…”
Phillips added that since the agreements were cancelled, Matheba had been hostile towards him and other directors of his company:
From his affidavit, Phillips believes Matheba is “rabble rousing” as he says she has “incited a dangerous call to arms against me and has a flagrant disregard for my physical safety”.
He further argued that she ignored his letter of demand issued to her on May 20, and published more allegations against him.
According to the papers, Matheba tweeted:
The papers revealed that Matheba also authored an email to his lawyers, stating that she would stand up for herself in public.
Phillips concluded that he was worried about his physical wellbeing and had been subjected to threats and intimidation.
“It is my respectful submission that this application is of extreme urgency and that I have no other suitable remedy besides an urgent final or interim interdict … The respondent must immediately be restrained from making statements, which are intended or which are likely to incite and encourage others to perpetrate violence against me.”
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