A subsidiary of Australian mining company Mineral Commodities Limited (MRC)... has sued two Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) attorneys for defamation, claiming R500 000 in damages.

The summons alleges that CER attorneys Tracey Davies and Christine Reddell, along with a local community activist from the West Coast, Davine Cloete, made defamatory statements about MRC’s subsidiary company, Mineral Sands Resources (MSR)... during presentations at the University of Cape Town...

...The claims will be strenuously defended. ...This is not the first time that MRC has sued activists who have criticised the company.

...At Tormin, local communities and environmental activists have raised numerous concerns about the legality of MSR’s mineral sands mining operation. In September 2016, environmental authorities obtained and executed a search warrant at Tormin. In response, MSR sued the Magistrate who issued the warrant and the environmental authorities involved in the search and seizure operation.

...While the Western Cape High Court in its judgement in March 2017 set aside the search warrant on the basis that the environmental authorities had overstepped their jurisdiction, the court confirmed that MSR had expanded its operations without the required environmental authorisation.