Dendairy takes Facebook critic to court

A man who recently uploaded videos destroying Dendairy milk – after using it to clean a pit latrine – has been taken to court by the Kwekwe-based company.

The man claimed he was poisoned by the company’s products, and uploaded a video to Facebook washing a bicycle using the milk, before posting another video cleaning a toilet (above).

ONE of the country’s leading dairy companies, Dendairy (Pvt) Limited, has approached the High Court seeking an order directing a disgruntled consumer to pull down a video, which he posted on social media tarnishing the company’s image.

Mr Aleck Phiri recently bought 500ml bottles of milk processed by Dendairy from an unidentified supermarket. However, upon consuming the milk he realised that it had gone bad.

Mr Phiri then engaged Dendairy and the company apologised and subsequently offered him the number of bottles of milk he had bought.

However, Mr Phiri refused to accept the milk and instead demanded US$500 000 claiming he fell sick as a result of the bad milk he consumed. – The Chronicle

Valentine Mutatu of Mutatu and Partners – Dendairy’s lawyers – signalled the court action a fortnight ago.

“We suspect that the customer you were talking about wants to extort money from our client. His demands suggest otherwise and we are considering a legal challenge to stop the man from continuing with his antics,” Mutatu told Midlands News.

Through his firm, Dendairy has now filed an urgent chamber application at the Bulawayo High Court citing Aleck Phiri as the respondent. It wants him interdicted from “recording videos, audios or publishing anything on social media platforms which damages its reputation and brand.”

Dendairy also wants Phiri ordered to remove his Facebook videos, which went viral and inspired a wave of social media posts criticising the company and its products – criticism which has resumed following the company’s legal action.