News / National
Zifa president sues journo for $10 million
02 Sep 2013 at 08:53hrs | Views
Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) president Cuthbert Dube has filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against Real Soccer Magazine (RSM) editor Shepherd Mandizvidza.
Dube, who is also Premier Services Medical Aid Society group chief executive officer, said Mandizvidza defamed him by writing several damaging stories since he was elected to head Zifa in March 2010.
The businessperson, who sits on several boards, complained about one of the stories published on the online magazine in April 2010, headlined "Zifa president bribes Fifa official".
He alleged the story among other several stories portrayed him as a "corrupt, dishonest and incorrigible football administrator who bribed his way to the Zifa presidency."
"On the May 17, 2013 plaintiff (Dube) decided that the defamatory articles had injured his feelings and reputation enough and wrote a letter of demand to the first and second defendants (Mandizvidza and RSM respectively)" Dube wrote in his High Court application.
"The two defendants denied defaming Plaintiff and declared that Plaintiff was not even worth a quarter of what Plaintiff was claiming."
He said some of the articles portrayed him in bad light, and as an incompetent football administrator.
In response to one letter written to him in May this year pertaining to the alleged defamatory articles, Mandizvidza through his lawyer Farai Nyamayaro denied the claim.
"This is because the reports that you claim to be defamatory are not at all defamatory unless if the word has since assumed a new meaning," Nyamayaro said.
"We are shocked by some of the allegations that date back to 2010, are you making us believe that it took your client close to three years to realise that he had been defamed? Surely this is laughable."
Dube, who is also Premier Services Medical Aid Society group chief executive officer, said Mandizvidza defamed him by writing several damaging stories since he was elected to head Zifa in March 2010.
The businessperson, who sits on several boards, complained about one of the stories published on the online magazine in April 2010, headlined "Zifa president bribes Fifa official".
He alleged the story among other several stories portrayed him as a "corrupt, dishonest and incorrigible football administrator who bribed his way to the Zifa presidency."
"On the May 17, 2013 plaintiff (Dube) decided that the defamatory articles had injured his feelings and reputation enough and wrote a letter of demand to the first and second defendants (Mandizvidza and RSM respectively)" Dube wrote in his High Court application.
He said some of the articles portrayed him in bad light, and as an incompetent football administrator.
In response to one letter written to him in May this year pertaining to the alleged defamatory articles, Mandizvidza through his lawyer Farai Nyamayaro denied the claim.
"This is because the reports that you claim to be defamatory are not at all defamatory unless if the word has since assumed a new meaning," Nyamayaro said.
"We are shocked by some of the allegations that date back to 2010, are you making us believe that it took your client close to three years to realise that he had been defamed? Surely this is laughable."
Source - daily news
