Ex-convict Chivayo demands $500 000 summons

Ex-convict Wicknell Chivayo on Monday demanded to be served with summons which were recently filed at the High Court in a case he is being sued for $500 000 for injuria by The Sunday Mail Features and Opinions Editor, Garikai Mazara.

Writing through his lawyers, Mambosasa and Partners, convicted Chivayo, who hurled explicit obscenities in WhatsApp messages to Mazara on February 20, demanded that the summons be served on him.

Responding to Chivayo, Mazara's lawyer, Mr Tichawana Nyahuma of Sengwe Legal Law Chambers, said there was no time frame within which summons that had been filed with the High Court had to be given to the Sheriff to effect service on the defendant.

Mr Nyahuma explained the procedure to the convicted businessman, who once did time in jail for fraud, and the steps that summons go through, from filing to being served.

Mazara is suing Chivayo for $500 000 for injuria arising from the said phone messages.

Mazara travelled to Gwanda to get an appreciation of progress on the $202 million solar project, whose tender was won by Chivayo in October 2015 under contentious circumstances.

When he came back from Gwanda, Mazara sent a set of questions to Chivayo seeking clarification on the progress of the pre-commencement works, for which Intratrek Zimbabwe -fronted by Chivayo - was advanced $5 million by the Zimbabwe Power Corporation in May last year.

Chivayo asked Mazara to write a favourable story and "come see me on Monday at my office".

When the story was published on Sunday February 19 including his responses to the questions sent to him, Chivayo flew into a rage.

The following day he sent a flurry of insulting messages, some of them unprintable.