Ministers back Moyo defamation suit

Ministers back Moyo defamation suit

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• Moyo angers ex-Cabinet colleagues with tribal slur

• Full text of Moyo's reply to dismissal from government

• Moyo slams Zanu PF 'politics of patronage'

• Mugabe drops Moyo from Cabinet

• Mugabe's spin doctor quits, goes independent

• Msika snubs Moyo's Tsholotsho plea

• Moyo bombshell: Gukurahundi killed my dad

• Matsanga delights in Moyo's misfortunes

• Moyo sues Dabengwa, Nkomo for $2bln

• Zanu PF lifts Langa, Ncube's suspension

• Moyo: 'Tsholotsho will hold Nkomo to account'

• Moyo lays into Nkomo, Dabengwa as Zanu PF stalls on Tsholotsho

By Clemence Manyukwe

THREE ministers and war veterans leader Joseph Chinotimba have been cited as witnesses for former information minister Jonathan Moyo in his $2 billion defamation lawsuit against Zanu PF national chairman John Nkomo and Politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa.

According to court papers filed by the former information minister, other prominent people in Tsholotsho will also testify to the effect that Nkomo had defamed Moyo at a meeting in the constituency.

Moyo’s lawyer Cossam Ncube of Bulawayo law firm Job Sibanda and Associates said the matter was referred for trial on Wednesday after the two parties failed to agree on an out of court settlement during the pre-trial conference.

Moyo instituted legal action against Nkomo and Dabengwa on January 18 this year alleging that the two had defamed him a week earlier at a meeting in Tsholotsho.

He said the two had told the gathering that he had “instigated, funded and led the hatching of a coup plot against President Robert Mugabe and others in the top leadership of the party” last November.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema and the Minister of State for Special Affairs Responsible for Land and Resettlement Programme Flora Bhuka will tell the court that Moyo never plotted a coup against the Zanu PF presidium last November, the papers said.

Prominent figures in Tsholotsho, among them, the area’s Rural District Council chairman Alois Ndebele, Bulawayo Zanu PF youth chairperson Themba Ncube and an officer in the Ministry of Information and Publicity, Noel Mandebvu, will also say Nkomo indeed defamed Moyo.

According to the court papers, Chinamasa, just as the other ministers would say: “I confirm having attended the prize-giving ceremony at Dinyane High and will testify to the effect that there was no discussion at all about the coup.”

Moyo’s witnesses will also say the alleged coup plot was not discussed at all at a subsequent meeting held at Bulawayo Rainbow Hotel.

The pre-trial conference for the hearing of the matter in which Moyo - now once again a fierce government critic - will call 24 witnesses, was held on Wednesday at the Bulawayo High Court.

While the three ministers will defend Moyo, their testimonies would be contrary to that of two other deputy ministers who will testify on behalf of Nkomo and Dabengwa.

The two are Andrew Langa, who is Nhema’s deputy, and Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare deputy minister Abednico Ncube.

Ndebele, Ncube and Mandebvu will also provide contrary information to that of Bulawayo Metropolitan governor Cain Mathema who will testify on the side of Nkomo and Dabengwa.

Although the four witnesses attended the same meeting where the Parliamentary Speaker and the former Minister of Home Affairs were present, Mathema will say the two politicians never uttered anything defamatory, while the rest will: “testify that they heard defendants making the defamatory utterance about Moyo at the meeting”.

Of the 24 witnesses that Moyo intends to call, 10 will say Nkomo defamed the former cabinet minister, while the rest will say Moyo never attempted to restructure the ruling party’s presidium unconstitutionally.

Other notables who will join the ministers and Chinotimba in testifying on behalf of Moyo are two Zanu PF suspended provincial chairmen, Jacob Mudenda (Matabelaland North) and July Moyo (Midlands).

Nhema said yesterday that he knew nothing about testifying in favour of Moyo. In papers filed with the same court, Nkomo and Dabengwa prayed for the court to dismiss Moyo’s lawsuit, arguing that he had never suffered any damages.

They also said they would call 17 witnesses, among them the two deputy ministers, who will testify that indeed Moyo invited them to a meeting where the issue of the candidacy of the presidium was discussed.

Langa will say: “He was invited by plaintiff (Moyo) to attend the Dinyane High School special organising meeting which was attended on November 18. He will further testify that he attended a subsequent meeting at the rainbow Hotel in Bulawayo on the same day at which the issue of the candidacy for the presidium and strategies for nomination were discussed.”

The court is yet to set the date of the trial - Daily Mirror
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