Mrs SA fails to silence ‘disgruntled’ contestant with urgent interdict

Mrs SA and its owner, Joanie Johnson, have failed to silence a “disgruntled” contestant with an urgent interdict after the judge in the Cape Town High Court dismissed it on merit.

Johnson and Mrs SA wanted former contestant Chandrè Goosen-Joubert, 37, from Cape Town, as well as the news website, uSpiked, to remove comments she made about the competition being just another beauty pageant, although it sells itself as a way to empower women.

Goosen-Joubert said contestants had to spend thousands of Rands to stand a chance to win, with compulsory fundraising akin to “slavery” and having to wear bikinis in public.

Johnson’s lawyers had already applied for an interdict to remove all alleged negative and defamatory allegations about the competition before applying for the urgent interdict, as Goosen-Joubert did not remove her claims from Instagram and the website article stayed up.

Goosen-Joubert and uSpiked filed notices of intention to oppose the case that was heard on Tuesday. According to the Mrs SA affidavit, Goosen-Joubert published various offending posts on Instagram, attaching  her posts, which means they were now in the public domain.

Her comments included “Mrs. SA is a disgrace”, “I find it ironic that testimonials done by women that is now again being used by the organisations wrongdoing… Covering it up won’t work this time…” and “I won’t stop exposing women abuse Mrs South Africa! You are abusing women for your own pockets.”

The affidavit goes on to say that Goosen-Joubert’s comments went well beyond what is allowed as freedom of speech and as she wrote she “will not be silenced”, it constituted grounds for an urgent application.

“In the meantime, the continuous defaming of the first and second applicants will likely continue and will, no doubt, lead to substantial prejudice, damages and injustice to them and may even lead to the failure of the first applicant, Mrs SA,” the affidavit said.

Goosen-Joubert in her answering affidavit said she was being labelled “disgruntled” and a “bully” after she wanted more information about the competition. “My investigation is not based on the fact that I did not win, but stems from my concerns and the concerns of others regarding the pageant.

“I have witnessed contestants being placed under immense pressure to raise money under the guise of Women4Women so they can participate in the pageant. The amounts the contestants are required to raise are exorbitant and the organisation has provided no transparency as to how and for what exactly the money is spent,” she said.

According to the affidavit, contestants were supposed to raise funds even after they were eliminated from the competition.

“My concerns about the pageant are confirmed by the experience of other contestants. The purpose of my investigation is to uncover the truth and to rise for future contestants so that they may make an informed decision when they enter the pageant,” Goosen-Joubert said.

“Instead, I am unjustifiably labelled a so-called disgruntled contestant and a bully,” Goosen-Joubert wrote in her affidavit.

She further said she reserved her rights to pursue criminal charges against the applicants in terms of misusing and/or mismanaging of money intended for Women4Women.

Judge Robert Henney also made a cost order against Mrs SA and Johnson. Goosen-Joubert’s attorney, Leon van der Merwe, appointed two counsel to act on her behalf.

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