Publication: Cape Times
Issued:
Date: 2005-09-22
Reporter: Fatima Schroeder
Reporter:
Reporter:
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Lawyer Claims R750 000 for Defamation from Sunday Times
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Writer
and lawyer Ronald Suresh Roberts is suing the owners of the Sunday Times,
Johncom Media Investments Limited, for R750 000 in the Cape High Court for
defamation and injuria for a profile published last October.
But the
newspaper has defended the report as true and in the public interest and that
opinions expressed were fair and in good faith.
The profile, titled "the
unlikeable Mr Roberts", was written by Chris Barron and was also made available
on the Sunday Times website.
In court papers, Roberts claims the piece
conveyed to readers that he was not a fit and proper person to be an attorney or
to be employed by a firm of attorneys, and that he conducted himself in a
dishonest manner.
It also created the impression that he levelled
unjustifiable criticism against people and that he had criticised people in
order to further a racial agenda or to protect the ANC.
The alleged
defamatory statements included:
- "(Roberts's) firm arranged for Johannesburg law firm Deneys Reitz to give
him a job. After three months he left saying he wouldn't be the firm's 'smiling
native'. In effect, he was told to leave when it was found he'd been making
private business arrangements that created a conflict of interest for Deneys
Reitz. Had he been a South African lawyer, steps would probably have been taken
to have him struck from the roll".
- "Blacks who criticise the government are dismissed venomously by Roberts as
white lackeys and slaves to Eurocentrism."
- That he was an "egregious West Indian carpetbagger".
- "Roberts says he left (New York) because he was 'bored'."
But the
Sunday Times claims the article's content, was true or substantially true, and
that reasonable steps had been taken to verify it.
With acknowledgements to Fatima Schroeder and the Cape
Times.