NetOne Cellular seeks Kangai defamation dismissal

NETONE Cellular (Pvt) Ltd has approached the High Court seeking an order dismissing its former chief executive officer, Reward Kangai's $2 million defamation claim.

NetOne's acting board chairperson Susan Muchaneta Mutangadura claimed that Kangai had failed to pursue his claim for some time, hence the plea for its dismissal.

In her founding affidavit, Mutangadura said sometime in September 2019, Kangai issued summons against his former employer and Zimbabwe Newspapers journalists and administrators namely, Ceasar Zvayi, Lloyd Gumbo, Lincolin Towindo, Alex Marufu and The Herald claiming defamation damages arising from a newspaper article published on March 11, 2016.

However, after NetOne Cellular responded to the summons, Kangai failed to pursue the matter as per court procedures.

"It is apposite to mention here that the respondent seems to have lost appetite of his case as he never did anything since the applicant's plea was served upon his legal practitioners of record on November 27, 2019," Mutangadura said.

Mutangadura also urged the court to dismiss the claim saying NetOne could not be dragged into a matter involving a publishing house which is not answerable to the parastatal.

"There is no case upon which the court is being called upon to adjudicate. The respondent's (Kangai) claim is for damages for defamation of character arising from a newspaper article. The applicant (NetOne Cellular) did not publish the article. It is a separate legal entity with no ties or legal relationship with Zimbabwe Newspapers Limited, the company which owns The Herald which published the article in question," she said.

"What happens to the newspaper companies are their own responsibilities. If anything published was defamatory then that is for the publishing company to answer and not for the applicant."

The matter is yet to be set down for hearing.