By: Kelvin Chiringa
The case in which a northern-based teacher was accused of publicly exposing the HIV status of an intern legal officer has now been thrown out of the court as both parties are now settling the matter between themselves.
Ruth Martha Hangula was accused by Libertine Popyeni Naudyepo Shiyaleni of defamation and sued her for N$300 000.
Hangula, a Grade 12 teacher, countered by also opening an N$800 000 counter defamation case in which she accused the legal intern of lies and tarnishing her image.
The Oshakati High Court heard that Hangula on 14 March 2020 at Ongwediva, wrongfully and unlawfully with the intention to defame Shiyaleni publicly and in the presence of several people said that she is HIV-positive and that is the reason she left Oshigambo High School in 2014.
These remarks were challenged as false and defamatory and that they imputed or were intended to be understood by persons who heard them to mean that Shiyaleni was a dangerous person to the public, of ill repute, and to stigmatise her.
Shiyaleni, in her papers said her “life has been made horrible as she is facing a lot of rejection in public due to the defamatory remarks that she is HIV-positive.”
She also told court that Hangula’s conduct had led to her suffering N$300 000 worth of damages.
Despite the Oshakati High Court having made the out of court settlement an order of court, Hangula says she wanted to proceed with her defamation case.
“Our lawyers talked and said maybe we can forgive each other or we can talk before the whole thing is taken over by the court. The out-of-court settlement was done on 21 June 2021. Then when we went there, she was asking me N$100 000 and I asked her N$200 000.
“The mediator said this person doesn’t work, and that I am just a teacher and can’t we just settle this otherwise it would really cost us both. So, all of us had no money to continue with the case. And there were also some cases that she wanted me to withdraw because I also had opened a criminal case against her.
“When I used to go to the court, she used to threaten and insult me and using the F-word on me in a court of law. She was an intern prosecutor at the magistrate’s court at the time that she was suing me,” said the Grade 12 teacher.
Hangula has denied ever putting it in the public domain that Shiyaleni was HIV positive.
Both are neighbours.
“She just came to my house one day with the police saying that I drove my car in a way that threw dust on her and that I raised my middle finger at her. The police just wanted us to talk but the thing just went out of hand. I am a big woman. I am always in my car with my kids and there is no way I can do those things,” she said.