A former South Africa Airways (SAA) pilot has won a defamation case against the South African Transport Workers Union and received R450,000 for his efforts.
Times Live reported that Senior Captain John Harty filed the lawsuit against two members of the union‚ Mathew Ramosie, the national aviation coordinator‚ who was ordered to pay R150,000 plus interest and Nicholas Maziya‚ the union's deputy national secretary for an article that was published by the Daily Maverick in March and on social media.
The two were ordered to pay a further R150,000 each plus interest for an article that was published on the Eyewitness News website and on social media. In the articles‚ Ramosie and Maziya alleged that Harty had diverted a Hong Kong/Johannesburg SAA flight to Durban to drop off members of his family who were on board with him.