A Pretoria man who has been displaying slogans on his vehicle denouncing Delta has laid charges of perjury against three of the manufacturer’s executives.
A Pretoria man who has been displaying slogans on his vehicle denouncing Delta has laid charges of perjury against three of the manufacturer’s executives.
Delta last week failed in court in a renewed attempt to stop Jaco van der Merwe from displaying the slogans describing the Isuzu as the “worst 4×4 by far” and “gravel road breaks chassis” on his vehicle. They also wanted him to stop his email campaign denouncing the company.
reported last week that acting Judge Roger Claassen turned down Delta’s application for leave against his earlier ruling. He said he was not convinced that another judge would come to a different conclusion.
Van der Merwe, the son of Inkatha Freedom Party Chief Whip Koos van der Merwe, claimed that his Isuzu’s chassis bent while he was on holiday in Namibia in April 2001. The Isuzu was a year old and had about 29 000 km on the clock. He said Delta refused to replace or repair the vehicle. Delta says the chassis could only have bent if subjected to misuse or negligence.
In an earlier ruling in November, the judge ruled that the sign on Van der Merwe’s bakkie was not defamatory and was ambiguous. He said it did not refer to a specific vehicle only or to the type of vehicle in general.
Van der Merwe on Wednesday laid a charge of perjury against Delta marketing and product planning manager Alastair Ironside, after sales district manager in Gauteng Tony Wilson and Isuzu reliability engineer Derek Sampson.
Van der Merwe said the officials had made false statements that severely prejudiced him.
Inspector Herman du Plessis of the detective branch at the Pretoria Central police station confirmed that Van der Merwe laid charges on Wednesday.
“The case will be taken to the office of the senior state prosecutor and they will decide if anyone should be charged or if the case should be withdrawn,” Du Plessis told CARtoday.com.
In response, Delta director of after sales, Doug Harrison, said in a statement: “Due legal process has been followed and we are considering our options at this point in time.”
