‘Sex exploiter’ Sackeus sued

By Confidente Reporter
LEGAL action has been instituted against a Windhoek man, Sackeus Panduleni Shoolongo who allegedly accused his estranged girlfriend of leaking an explicit sex video involving him and an­other unidentified woman.
Having denied that he originated the leak, the man claims that the video was in fact leaked by his “ex-girlfriend” Maria Ipito, who in turn has sued for defamation and subsequently demanded a retraction.
The video has since been shared on differ­ent social media platforms that include Fa­cebook and WhatsApp.
According to a letter in Confidente’s pos­session authored by the “ex-girlfriend’s” le­gal counsel, Norman Tjombe, the man had intentionally leaked the video after he failed to get money from the woman in the video. The letter was sent to the man via WhatsApp.
“There is no doubt that you recorded the video clip. We are advised that you attempt­ed to extort money from the woman appear­ing in the said video by threatening to pub­lish the video should she not make payment to you. The video clip appeared on social media after the refusal of payment. We are further advised that on previous occasions, you blackmailed other women in similar instances with compromising and embar­rassing video recordings that you have done in secret (i.e. without your victims knowing about it),” part of the letter reads.
The letter goes on to say that there is no doubt that the man distributed and pub­lished the video, although he falsely claimed that it was done by the woman.
“This is not only defamatory, but a vio­lation of our client’s constitutional right to dignity,” the letter reads.
Tjombe in the letter gave an ultimatum to the man to publish a retraction with an apology by Monday, this week. It is however not clear whether the man heeded to the instructions as it appears his Facebook ac­count has since been deactivated.
“We are instructed that you immediately publish a retraction prominently on your Fa­cebook account and state the true facts, to­gether with an apology to our client. Should you fail to do so by 18h00 today (i.e. Monday 23 January 2017), our client will obtain an interdict against you on an urgent basis, in­cluding lodging a criminal case against you for crimen injuria. In addition, we expressly reserve our client’s rights to institute dam­ages claim against you,” reads the letter.
It also appears that the man’s number has been switched off as he could not be reached for comment.
Tjombe when contacted for comment, “The fact that many people saw the video does not distract from the fact that the dam­age continue. My client is falsely accused of distributing a video which is defamatory of her. Crimen injuria is the criminal defama­tion and people need to know that others have rights to privacy and dignity which are protected by the Namibian Constitution.”
According to the law, ddefamation on so­cial is becoming increasingly common as it’s easy to post comments, pictures and videos but can result in legal problems under the defamation of character law.
Writing something on social media that is defamatory to someone is classified as libel defamation. Libel on the internet is when someone writes something that is classified as defamatory under defamation law.
The law of defamation exists in order to protect the reputation of a person but also to support a person’s capacity for free speech so a balance needs to be struck between these two competing rights.