Embattled Minister of Higher and Tertiary education Jonathan Moyo, has hit back by filing a $9 million defamation lawsuit against Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers), its editors and its reporters accusing them of publishing defamatory articles. He filed the lawsuit at the Harare High Court yesterday.
In his lawsuit, Moyo says:
The claims, allegations and assertions made by the defendants as set out above are false, malicious, scandalous, wrongful and defamatory of plaintiff in the extreme in that in their plain and ordinary meaning, they simply allege theft, corruption and a penchant for lawlessness by plaintiff and were intended by the defendants and understood by readers to mean that plaintiff is corrupt.
That plaintiff (Moyo) is a thief, who diverted fuel coupons meant for the Zimbabwe Youth Council and sold them on the black market for personal profit; that the plaintiff is engaged in subversive and unlawful conduct demonstrative of disloyalty to the President (Robert Mugabe), his appointing authority, by plotting student demonstrations against the Head of State, and utilised funds to fund the said demonstrations.
As a result of the defamatory articles, plaintiff, who is a Cabinet minister, a Member of Parliament for Tsholotsho constituency and a respected academic, has been damaged in his reputation and has suffered damages in the amount of $9 million,
More: Newsday
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