Richard Spoor
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Crack legal team to fight Anglo Pt
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Tue, 01 Aug 2006

[miningmx.com] -- THREE of South Africa's best legal brains are to defend under-fire human rights attorney Richard Spoor in his battle to stave off an interdict brought by Anglo American's platinum subsidiary.

David Unterhalter, Wim Trengrove and Gilbert Marcus - some of whom have acted for Anglo American in other cases - will line up against Anglo Platinum, the world's largest platinum producer.

The matter represents an intriguing standoff between one of the world's largest mining corporates and the cream of South African council.

great to have so much support
Spoor appears in court August 1 to argue against an interim interdict brought by Anglo Platinum to prevent Spoor from making what it sees as defamatory comments about the company.

David Unterhalter will appear for Spoor and if the case in the Pretoria High Court goes on beyond today’s session Wim Trengrove and Gilbert Marcus have both offered their services, Spoor told Miningmx. They are appearing on a pro amico basis or free of charge.

“We are hoping the matter will be kicked out today. If it gets postponed, David will be busy on another matter, so we will fall back on Wim and Gilbert, who is an absolute boffin in this field,” he said.

"It's great to have so much support," he added.

Spoor has been a vocal critic of Anglo Platinum’s interaction and handling of communities living on land it wishes to mine on the eastern limb of the Bushveld complex, and he has accused the company of being a racist “corporate thug” that uses “confrontation and repression” to get its way.

Anglo Platinum, its joint venture partner African Rainbow Minerals and subsidiaries Potgietersrust Platinum Ltd and Rustenburg Platinum have hotly denied the claims, and in a lawyer's letter have accused Spoor of making untrue and defamatory comments.

Spoor said he refused to be silenced, arguing he has the education, language and ability to convey the sentiments of some members of the communities he represents in their dealings with Anglo Platinum.

The August 1 hearing was delayed after the judge recused herself because she acted for Anglo in the past, Spoor said.

Spoor said his team would use comments made by Anglo Platinum CEO Ralph Havenstein on the Classic Business Day radio show on Monday night.

Havenstein said it wasn’t being called “corporate thugs” that was worrying Anglo Platinum so much as the comments Spoor made that were factually incorrect.

He cited an example of Spoor saying there had been a clash during a community march to a drill rig. Spoor said the rig was on community land, but Anglo Platinum contends it was company property.

“It’s those sorts of things that lead to problems within the community, and division among the community - and that’s the sort of thing which we’d like to stop. Being called “corporate thugs” is not nice, but we’re not going to go to court and stop someone from doing that,” he said.

In the lawyer’s letter sent to Spoor on 6 July this year, Spoor was asked to withdraw in writing comments ascribed to him in a wide range of publications, undertake in writing not to defame Anglo Platinum, its partner and subsidiaries again or face an urgent interdict to prevent him from making similar comments in the future.

The letter quoted news story extracts where Spoor spoke of of “corporate thuggery”, being “profoundly racist”, invading community land, choosing “confrontation and repression” above negotiations and that mining companies pay incentives to get their way.
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The Unterhalter, Trengrove, Marcus partnership represents the 'A Team' of South African legal representation.

Unterhalter was last month appointed to the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement body. He is a professor of law at the Witwatersrand University.

He is also a director of the university’s Mandela Institute, that focuses on competition law, international trade, environmental law, telecommunication, international tax law, humanitarian law and human rights law.

Trengrove is a human rights lawyer who helped draft the country’s constitution. He is acting for the state against former deputy president Jacob Zuma in a corruption case.

Marcus is a long-standing media lawyer, who also participated in drawing up the constitution and is a strong advocate for the freedom of expression.