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 South African legal history.
Fred van der Merwe paid financial adviser Nico van Gijsen R500,000 after a Cape Town high court award in 2016. But he told the Sunday Times he would appeal against last week's Kimberley high court ruling that he must pay attorney and former rugby star Frankel Engelbrecht R800,000 - an amount that has surprised legal experts.
Van der Merwe, 59, has four more defamation cases pending against him in the Cape Town 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 "whistleblower" 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 conflict has pitted the two brothers against each other, and the judge in the 2016 defamation case said it aggravated a feud that began when Van der Merwe had to stay in Postmasburg while Ian was allowed to attend a boarding school in Bloemfontein. Van der Merwe said this was "absolute nonsense...I am glad that I matriculated at [Hoörskool Griekwastad]".
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 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.
When people used to google him, they'd find out all about his rugby achievements. Now they just see all these horrible things that have been said about him
— Engelbrecht's attorney, Elzaan van Wyk
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 National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams and the justice ministry, among several other recipients.
In October 2018, said Kimberley high court acting judge Joey Moses, Engelbrecht obtained a protection order instructing Van der Merwe not to insult or abuse him.
But 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 Special Investigating Unit and the state attorney, making "defamatory remarks" about Engelbrecht.
Van der Merwe chose to represent himself but Moses struck out most of his pleadings as well as a counterclaim, and the case was heard in the neurosurgeon's absence.
In a document that survived, Van der Merwe admitted sending the e-mails but said he had a "moral and legal duty" to report crimes, fiduciary failures, law-breaking, money laundering and attempts to interfere with police investigations.
Engelbrecht said the campaign had a devastating effect on him, telling Moses he was experiencing heart palpitations as he testified. The judge said: "Due to the impact of these defamatory statements . he had since been medically diagnosed with depression. These statements had a huge impact on him, making him doubt himself personally and professionally."
Mariandri Smit, Engelbrecht's articled clerk, testified that after receiving Van der Merwe's e-mails her boss became upset and she sometimes saw him lying on the couch.
Engelbrecht, who claimed R800,000 in damages in 2018 but upped his claim to R1m in 2019 when the attacks continued, responded to Sunday Times queries by saying: "I have no comment and would like to put this whole saga behind me."
An expert in South African 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.
She said Engelbrecht was relieved by the judgment but saddened that his career as a lock forward - during which he captained the Western Province school team and Maties, played for SA Schools and captained Griquas to a 52-13 victory over Warren Gatland's touring Ireland side in 1998 - had been eclipsed by the controversy.
"When people used to google him, they'd find out all about his rugby achievements," she said. "Now they just see all these horrible things that have been said about him."
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