The banner calling Cell C the most useless service provider in South Africa is defamatory to the point of unlawfulness, the High Court in Johannesburg heard on Wednesday (12 November).<\/p>\n
In an urgent application before Judge Sharise Weiner, Christopher Whittcutt, for Cell C, argued the banner was a defamatory statement, and unashamedly so.<\/p>\n
The banner was put up by George Prokas at the WorldWear Mall on Beyers Naude Drive on November 6.<\/p>\n
Cell C sought interim relief to have the banner taken down.<\/p>\n
The banner, which appeared professionally printed and bore the Cell C logo, was prominently displayed at the mall along the road.<\/p>\n
“The most useless service provider in SA – Cell C Sandton City,” it read.<\/p>\n
It gave the name of the franchise manager and his phone number, claiming he had said that his “unnamed executive head refuses to assist the customer”.<\/p>\n
Whittcutt said: “As it stands, it continues to be unlawful and it is that unlawfulness the applicant seeks to interdict.”<\/p>\n
The dispute arose from a phone Prokas had taken up for his son with Cell C in 2013. The phone’s indicated number turned out to belong to and was being used by a different person.<\/p>\n
That individual ran up a bill of R5000, by which time Prokas ended the stop-order for the phone in October last year.<\/p>\n
However, when attempting to buy a car earlier in 2014, Prokas discovered he was listed as a bad debtor as a result of the unpaid R5000.<\/p>\n
He sought to have the bill waived by Cell C and removed from the bad debtors list by the end of October this year.<\/p>\n
However, by the end of October the situation had not changed.<\/p>\n
Prokas exchanged e-mails with Cell C, indicating he would put the banner up unless his complaints were dealt with.<\/p>\n
Whittcutt said, paraphrasing Prokas’s communication with the company, “I will stop defaming you if you waive the bill and pay me money”.<\/p>\n
It had cost Prokas R61,200 to make and put the banner up, which he sought payment for from Cell C, Whittcutt said.<\/p>\n
“This is blackmail, as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary.”<\/p>\n
After his complaints were allegedly not dealt with, Prokas put the banner up.<\/p>\n
“To defame somebody is to be presumed unlawful… the banner must come down,” Whittcutt said.<\/p>\n
The banner had been changed over this weekend, which Prokas had indicated he was not involved in, and now read “Cell C the most useful cellular provider”, with the logo altered.<\/p>\n
It was not known who altered the banner.<\/p>\n
Whittcutt said that while the banner had changed, it was still there and Prokas remained “defiant and unrepentant” for what he originally said.<\/p>\n
“He [Prokas] wants to put it back up as it originally was, without [franchise manager] Mr Van Rooyen’s details,” Whittcutt said.<\/p>\n
“Unless he [Prokas] is interdicted from doing so, that is exactly what he is going to do.”<\/p>\n
He said the fact Prokas would not include the name and number of the franchise manager as originally stated showed he had erred by doing so in the first place.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Weiner asked Whittcott why they had not sought an interdict to stop the banner being put up.<\/p>\n
He replied: “Until the banner went up it was not known Mr Prokas would take this action.”<\/p>\n
Anti-Cell C banner creator \u201cthe hell in\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Cell C on why it went to court over billboard<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Cell C takes legal action against \u201cmost useless\u201d banner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n