Andre Loots has been slapped with a final interdict ordering him to stop sending abusive emails to or about a senior Johannesburg attorney.

A TimesLIVE says the case has its roots in a divorce battle between the lawyer and his estranged wife, whom the lawyer claims is having an affair with Loots.

Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) Judge Avrille Maier-Frawley said after filing for a divorce, the lawyer faced a Worcester Magistrate's Court application for an interim protection order, which was subsequently abandoned; a criminal case for alleged theft of documents, which the NPA declined to pursue; a Johannesburg Magistrate's Court application for a protection order which was dismissed with costs; and a Randburg Magistrate's Court application for a protection order which was dismissed.

Ruling in the contempt of court case in November 2021, Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) Judge Ingrid Opperman said Loots embarked on an email campaign against the lawyer that was underpinned by ‘malice, vindictiveness, vexatiousness and unbridled intention to do as much harm to the reputation and dignity of the (lawyer) and to cause him as much distress as possible’.

The TimesLIVE report says in the latest case, Maier-Frawley's judgment is studded with examples of insults Loots aimed at the lawyer, copying his estranged wife and attorneys on both sides, as well as comments he made about the lawyer in emails to the attorneys.

The judge also interdicted the lawyer's estranged wife, saying she was clearly part of the abuse her husband suffered because she ignored pleas to distance herself from it.

‘If (she) did not agree with the content of (Loots') disparaging communications or if she did not align herself with his views or agree with his methods, one would have expected her to have said so specifically and unequivocally,’ said Maier-Frawley.

‘One would also have expected her to stop feeding (Loots) with information that he ... continued to utilise as a weapon. The inference is inescapable that she joined forces against (her husband) with a common purpose to harass, intimidate, verbally abuse and undermine his dignity with defamatory utterances, and not least of all, to try to procure, with the assistance of (Loots), the arrest of (her husband).’

The judge said Loots ‘arrogated to himself the right to embark on an unlawful smear campaign in which he denigrated the person, character and reputation of (the lawyer)’.

She added: ‘In so doing, he exhibited a profound lack of restraint and/or temperance, all under the guise of defending his own honour and offering support and assistance to (the lawyer's wife) purportedly in defence of her honour. Yet no measured or legally responsible approach was adopted. There is nothing to suggest that such conduct will not continue, unless restrained by a final interdict.’

Full TimesLIVE report

Judgment