Tino Chinyoka slaps Fadzayi Mahere with US$200 000 lawsuit over tweet
Harare lawyer Tinomudaishe Chinyoka has filed a lawsuit with the High Court demanding US$200 000 in damages for ‘defamation’ from Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) national spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere.
Chinyoka argues that he was defamed by Mahere on 10, March this year when she commented through a tweet on the suspension of the Petrotrade board by Energy Minister Soda Zhemu.
He further claims Mahere accused him of being suspended as Petrotrade board chair over corruption.
Through his lawyer, Vongai Shumba of V Nyemba and Associates, Chinyoka has since challenged the Minister’s decision to suspend him arguing it was “unfair in that it casts aspersions on my character and integrity”.
Chinyoka is arguing that Mahere published defamatory stuff in connection with his suspension and that he was actually fired for challenging corruption at Petrotrade.
“On or around 10 March 2022, the Defendant posted a tweet on her Twitter account, with a picture of the press statement by the Minister of Energy and Power Development dismissing the Board of Directors of Petrotrade (Private) Limited (for which Plaintiff was the Chairman) and stated the following:
Corruption is killing us.
They were appointed in June 2021. Before one year is up, they’re facing allegations of corruption.
Among the suspended are Tino Chinyoka & Lilian Timveos
Petrotrade sells petroleum products & lubricants through bulk sales & service stations.
Chinyoka said the tweet, in the context of the press statement announcing the Plaintiff’s suspension as Board Chairman at Petrotrade (Private) Limited, “implied and/ or was intended to imply and was understood by those to whom it was published to imply that Plaintiff had been suspended for corruption.”
He further noted: “The said tweet was then retweeted and therefore republished, or was caused to be republished, by the Defendant, on the internet and social media, and was widely circulated in Zimbabwe and all over the world.”
Through his lawyers Gunje Legal Practitioners, Chinyoka is demanding; “Payment in the sum of US100,000.00 (one hundred thousand United States of America Dollars only) and US$100,000.00 (one hundred thousand United States of America dollars only) or the Zimbabwe currency equivalent of the above sums, at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe auction/exchange rate being damages for defamation and injurious falsehood, plus interest thereon at the prescribed rate from the date of summons to the date of payment and costs of suit, as more fully appears in the attached declaration which is incorporated herewith.”
The matter is yet to be heard.
Mahere did not answer her phone when Nehanda Radio contacted her for a comment.
