A brain surgeon facing an R800 000 damages bill now holds the record for what are believed to be the two largest defamation awards in SA legal history.

Fred van der Merwe paid financial adviser Nico van Gijsen R500 000 after the Western Cape High Court award in 2016.

But he said he would appeal against last week's Northern Cape High Court (Kimberley) ruling that he must pay attorney and former rugby star Frankel Engelbrecht R800 000 – an amount that has surprised legal experts, according to a Sunday Times report.

Van der Merwe (59) has four more defamation cases pending against him in the Western Cape High Court.

Three plaintiffs – Pieter Venter, Jonathan Williams and Terence Matzdorff – are attorneys and the fourth is Louis van Vuren, CEO of the Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa.

The neurosurgeon, who practises at Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town, said he was undeterred by the Engelbrecht defamation award, the latest development in his campaign against what he describes as endemic corruption and misconduct in the legal and fiduciary sectors.

‘It has become a crusade,’ he said, describing himself as a ‘whistle-blower’ and alleging that the defamation cases ‘are an onslaught to try to silence me’.

Van der Merwe's campaign has its roots in the joint will of his parents, who died in 2007 and 2010 and left their Northern Cape farm to a testamentary trust in which Van der Merwe and his younger brother, Ian, were the beneficiaries.

Engelbrecht was the trustee.

The executors of the parents' estate decided in 2013 that Onder-Ongeluk farm must be sold to meet a shortfall in the assets of the testamentary trust.

Ian, a doctor in Postmasburg, was the successful bidder.

Van der Merwe named Engelbrecht as a respondent when he unsuccessfully sued to have the auction cancelled, and the judge admonished the neurosurgeon for his ‘venom, insults and serious accusations’. 

This, notes the Sunday Times, was the start of what Engelbrecht said turned into a years-long campaign involving ‘hundreds and hundreds’ of e-mails accusing him of corruption, fraud, theft, extortion, dishonesty and incompetence.

One e-mail cited in court, sent in June 2018, went to the police, the Hawks, the Master of the High Court in Kimberley, then NPA head Shaun Abrahams and the Justice Ministry, among several other recipients.

Despite Engelbrecht obtaining a protection order instructing Van der Merwe not to insult or abuse him, the attacks continued, and even on the eve of the defamation trial Van der Merwe copied an affidavit to the Northern Cape Judge President, the Office of the Chief Justice, the police, the SIU and the State Attorney, making ‘defamatory remarks’ about Engelbrecht.

An expert in SA defamation law said damages awards usually range from about R50 000 to R150 000, depending on the circumstances.

‘General damages of R800 000 for defamation is unheard of...even if it is intended to reflect aggravating circumstances,’ he said.

Engelbrecht's attorney, Elzaan van Wyk, said the size of the award reflected the period of time over which Van der Merwe defamed Engelbrecht and the number of times the defamation was repeated.

Full Sunday Times report (subscription needed)