Ntsiki Mazwai: Court orders to pay large sums of money is a ‘form of violence’

DJ Euphonik, real name Themba Nkosi, has won a legal battle against controversial poet and musician Ntsiki Mazwai.

The High Court in Johannesburg made the judgment on 10 March and found Mazwai’s tweets were defamatory after she insinuated on Twitter that Euphonik was a rapist in 2020. 

The matter was heard earlier on an urgent basis in the high court, the court ordered Mazwai to stop talking or posting about the DJ on an interim basis pending the final determination, which was heard in January 2022.

“Any person who has substantial social media following and who is able, as a consequence thereof to reach out to and influence a large community of people, as the respondent is able to do, is required to ensure that they exercise temperance and responsibility in the dissemination of public posts.

“More importantly, the respondent ought to ensure that her public statements are based and founded in truth and in fact,” the judgment read. 

Speaking on Newzroom Afrika on Saturday morning, Mazwai says she is done paying for court losses.

She was also ordered to pay R200,000 after her court loss to DJ Fresh, as the application was similar to Euphonik.

The activist believes the legal process is trying to silence her advocacy work, in turn helping perpetrators, not the victims.

It was revealed she had paid the litigation amount of R200,000 after sharing a list naming DJ Fresh as a rapist.

The list refers to names of South African people who were named at the height of a “Me Too” moment on the microblogging platform and DJ Fresh’s name was mentioned numerous times. 

Mazwai was among the many people who republished the allegations, however, she is one of the few people the DJ took legal action against. 

“There is no solution for rape victims. Rape is something difficult to prove, knowing that it already creates a bias in favour of rapists. We need to create laws that actually protect voices and victims of rapes more… 

“I believe women, nothing anyone can do to take away my conviction and my voice from women that need my voice.”

Mazwai adds she understands the platform she has and that her voice is powerful and is aware not to abuse that power.

She further went on to say that silencing activists is going to worsen the situation.

“It means that men or women who rape if they rape, they [have] an option to go to the justice system to silence the victims. Such as opening defamation cases, litigation and legal letters sent to victims to keep them quiet.”

Mazwai concluded the court orders for activists to pay large sums of money is a “form of violence”.

She has reached the point where she is refusing to pay going forward and is thinking of not speaking out in relation to gender-based violence.