A recent judgment from the Durban High Court.
During 2019, after the parties separated and the respondent vacated the matrimonial home, the respondent entered the matrimonial home where the applicant was residing, without the applicant’s knowledge or consent. He looked at the security camera footage, from which he recorded a video on his phone of the applicant engaging in a sexual encounter. The applicant believes the respondent had shown the video to a number of people and threatened to show it to other people, leading to an urgent application being launched in May 2023. The respondent claimed to have deleted the video, but there was no acceptable evidence of this. This was some 3 years after the parties’ divorce was finalised.
The Court held that the applicant’s constitutional right to privacy had been seriously compromised. The respondent was interdicted from publishing or disseminating the video, and a punitive costs order was granted against him.