Durban Businessman Calvin Mathibeli has taken down the defamatory Facebook post he had made about KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
In a letter seen by IOL, his lawyers confirmed that the posts have been removed as per court order.
This comes after the Durban High Court dismissed his application for leave to appeal an earlier judgment delivered on February 27, 2026, in which the court ordered Mathibeli to remove defamatory statements he had published about Mkhwanazi across social media platforms, websites and other digital media.
“Our client has complied with the said order as far as within his control by deleting all messages and comments on your client from his Facebook account where it was previously posted. Unfortunately, our client is not in control of the TV broadcast and can unfortunately therefore not retract same unless invited for another interview by the broadcaster,” read the letter.
The letter further indicated that Mathibeli will refrain from making any further posts about Mkhwanazi on social media as per the court order.
“We trust that our client had now complied with the said court order as far as he is possible,” the letter concluded.
This is not Mathibeli’s first defeat. In mid-March, the same court dismissed his urgent application to interdict the South African Police Service (SAPS) from conducting a firearms compliance inspection at his company premises, Calvin and Family Security Services, in Durban North.
The application followed SAPS notifying Mathibeli on March 11, 2026, of a scheduled compliance inspection set for March 19 under the banner of Operation Buyisa.
“The court found that Mr Mathibeli’s application lacked urgency and dismissed it with costs. He was ordered to pay legal costs to SAPS,” police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mukhathi said at the time.
sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za
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