'The Source' hits brick wall in Econet case

A BID by Source-Net (Pvt) Ltd - a Reuters-affiliated business news agency, whose newsroom was raided by Econet recently - to have the matter referred to the Constitutional Court last week hit a brick wall after the High Court dismissed the urgent application.

Acting on a provisional order granted by Justice Musakwa, Econet officials and lawyers, the Deputy Sheriff and security agents last month invaded Source-Net's premises in central Harare and ransacked the online publication's computers, extracting information from e-mails.

Econet Wireless raided the newsroom in a bid to retrieve documents used to write stories on the operations of its subsidiary, Steward Bank.

The urgent chamber application was filed just after the court had granted the interim order for the search and extraction of information from the news agency.

The dismissal of the chamber application came barely a day after Source- Net's lawyers wrote to the Registrar of the High Court complaining of the delay in the handing down of the judgment.

Justice Joseph Musakwa ruled that the news agency had approached the court with dirty hands after writing to the Sheriff of the High Court and the police trying to stop them from carrying out the raid in terms of a court order.

Until the news agency cleansed itself, the court held, it was not entitled to any audience in courts of law.

"In my view, to grant the applicants audience on the merits is tantamount to encouraging a party to undermine the authority of the court.

"Therefore, the applicants are non-suited on account of their unclean hands. The applicants are ordered to pay respondents' costs on a legal practitioner and client scale," ruled Justice Musakwa.

The judge said the letters written to the police and Sheriff clearly proved that Source-Net was trying to interfere with the court's decision.

"A reading of the letters addressed to the police and the Sheriff clearly shows that the applicants were interfering with court process.

"They were aware that an order had been granted and on what basis were they urging the addressees not to comply with the order?

"It is well established that a litigant must approach a court with clean hands. A party against whom a court order has been granted must first obey that order whilst seeking any other redress/* Justice Musakwa ruled.

Econet's action in raiding the news-room drew outrage from Government and media representatives who wondered how an organisation also involved in the business of disseminating information through its mobile phone business, would act in that way.

Government said the incursion was a threat to media freedom and freedom of expression as guaranteed under Section 61(1) and (2) of the Constitution.

Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo condemned the raid, saying the constitutionality of the provisional order was liable to challenge.

Justice Musakwa, in the contested judgment, ordered The Source, an affiliate of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, to |delete and expunge" two articles the online publication recently published about Econet and its banking unit, Steward Bank.

One of the articles titled "Debt-dis- tressed Zimbabwe moves to reschedule domestic debt" claimed that Government had borrowed $30 million from Econet, disbursed through Steward Bank, in a deal brokered by former Econet chairman Mr Tawanda Nyambirai.

The article claimed that Mr Nyambirai pocketed a substantial facilitation fee for brokering the deal, for which the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe allegedly acted as the guarantor.

The other contentious story titled "Steward Bank seeks to settle $2,1 million in Chiyangwa loan" alleged that Steward Bank was considering swapping residential stands worth $2,1 million to recover funds borrowed by a property firm owned by businessman Mr Philip Chiyangwa.

The article quoted confidential documents, which showed that Pinnacle Property Holdings owed $2 170 763,78, despite surrendering collateral worth $720 000.