By Tarisai Machakaire
Goodness and Mercy Ministries’s Tapiwa Freddy has been hit with a $100 000 lawsuit after publishing a prophecy that allegedly exposed a Harare man’s extra marital affair.
The plaintiff, Berry Mutimbe of Unit O Seke, Chitungwiza, wants Freddy to foot defamation damages of $100 000 because his community now sees him as an adulterer following the prophecy.
Mutimbe’s lawyers Bothwell Ndlovu Attorneys at Law filed the summons at the High Court yesterday leaving Freddy with 10 days to respond to the summons.
According to the summons, sometime last year Freddy, who is famed for introducing “spiritual spectacles” — uttered defamatory words and caused their publication through a local radio station and Internet via the YouTube platform.
Freddy allegedly said: “Ndirikuoneswa uine boyfriend inoshanda kuFire Brigade zita rake rinonzi Barry Mutimbe (I have been shown that you have a boyfriend who works at Fire Brigade called Barry Mutimbe) and as I am looking in the realm of the spirit ndirikuona akakutengera stand kuHopley, wakasvika ipapo ukaratidzwa stand pauri kutaura nyaya yako arikuti enda unogara ikoko (he bought you a residential stand and wants you to go and stay there).”
According to the summons, “the words were understood by the audience to mean Mutimbe had an extra marital affair with the person who was being given the prophecy.”
“It was further claimed that Mutimbe had a reckless character of being irresponsible and extravagant by buying Whisper Dzumbunu a residential stand at the expense of his economically suffering family.
“By so uttering and publishing such words Freddy demeaned Mutimbe as an adulterer who would break his good faith to his wife.
“He portrayed him as a ‘resource waster’ who could be so irresponsible to spoil a girlfriend with immovable property at the expense of his family.
“The defendant has despite being notified to stop uttering and publishing such demeaning statements continued to do so as he uses the clips to market his church on radio and the internet…further trampling plaintiff’s reputation by making him appear as an extortionist as appeared in the press.
“The plaintiff’s person has been demeaned as workmates, relatives, church mates and society at large now sees him as an irresponsible adulterer.”
It was also claimed that Freddy’s statements had torn apart Mutimbe’s family causing “the departure of his regard by others as a man devoid of real fatherhood principles in the eyes of society”. DailyNews
