Trollip wins defamation case over farm staff

Former DA Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Knight Mali, who vowed for years he would fight the multimillion-rand defamation claim from the metro’s former mayor, Athol Trollip, abandoned the case on Tuesday, saying he was ill, had no legal representation and was unable to conduct his own defence.

In his second bid in as many days to get a postponement, he told acting judge Sindile Toni he was simply too ill to continue and wanted to instruct a new lawyer from legal aid.

But, Toni said he had already ruled on the application for a postponement the day before, on Monday.

Toni had ruled that it was in the interest of justice that the matter continue after Trollip’s counsel, advocate Shaughan Cole, argued that Trollip had waited three years to set the record straight.

“We are going ahead,” the judge ruled. Mali packed his bags and left.

The matter was postponed exactly a year ago at Mali’s behest after he said he needed more time to find his far-flung witnesses who, he said, would testify in support of his claims that Trollip had acted inhumanely towards his farm staff.

On Monday, he indicated he had found his witnesses and consulted with them and was ready to proceed but for the fact that he was ill, had fired his lawyer, and was broke and in need of legal aid. There was no sign of any witnesses on Tuesday when court resumed.

It was one-way traffic after Mali left the court and the defamation trial took just five hours to wrap up.

Trollip told the court how devastated he had been by the defamatory accusations from Mali and former ANC councillor Lawrence Troon that he was a racist, human rights abuser who had exploited his farm employees.

Troon has since apologised and unconditionally withdrawn his statements.

Mali has persisted with the accusations over the past two years.

The allegations surfaced in 2015 in the run-up to the 2016 local government elections and more than a decade after Trollip had sold his Mount Prospect Farm outside Bedford.

Mali and Troon produced mostly unsigned statements from several men and women who, they claimed, had once worked on or near Trollip’s former farm.

Among other things, the group claimed they had been underpaid, exploited and treated badly by the Trollip family.

In the absence of Mali presenting his defamation defence, Trollip did not have to even call the many witnesses he had lined up to rubbish the claims.

However, armed with yellowed old wage books chronicling salaries, benefits, 13th cheque bonuses and annual 10% wage increases for all staff over decades, an emotional Trollip painstakingly refuted every allegation.

He wept as he told the court how he had kept in touch with many of his former farm staff.

Cole, instructed by attorney Brin Brody, took Trollip through decades of family history showing how the family had housed their staff in brick homes, paid for the schooling and even the tertiary education of some.

Trollip said he deeply regretted the fact that Mali did not even have the courage to stay in court and try to challenge his evidence.

“The accusations were not only untrue and defamatory, but they cut to the core of what makes me wake up in the morning,” he said.

Cole argued that Mali should cough up R2.5m for the damage he had done to Trollip’s reputation.

Judgment was reserved.- Daily Dispatch