Talking nonsense about people on social media can be a painful and costly affair, as one woman has learnt.
Centurion businessman Paul Hechter is suing a neighbour for R1.3m at the High Court in Pretoria for slandering him on Facebook after he complained about her pets.
Hechter said Michelle Benade’s chickens and keeping 50 to 60 rabbits in a “dirty and smelly cage” next to his wall was a problem.
In retaliation Benade posted his photograph on Facebook and called him her “perverse neighbour”.
Hechter says he was inundated with hate mail‚ labelling him a “sick bliksem”‚ a pervert and paedophile and threatened by one person who suggested that a biker gang “would sort him out”.
He got an order against her in February‚ forcing her to apologise and retract the statements.
Now he is claiming R1.3m in damages‚ saying his reputation is in its glory.
Benade has not raised a defence and the case has been postponed by Judge Mmonoa Teffo.