News / National
Nehanda Radio response to Chiyangwa's $250 million lawsuit
21 May 2014 at 10:08hrs | Views
In response to the alleged $250 million defamation lawsuit against online publication Nehanda Radio by Harare businessman Philip Chiyangwa, Lance Guma Wednesday in a statement published on NehandaRadio.com, Guma said:
I understand from press reports that businessman Philip Chiyangwa has filed a US$250 million lawsuit for defamation against Nehanda Radio. I'm glad Mr Chiyangwa has accepted my challenge (issued live on radio) and decided to sue.
While everyone has the right to sue if they feel aggrieved it is alarming that Mr Chiyangwa can write so many lies in his application. Nehanda Radio has never written an article claiming he is HIV positive (unless he is trying to tell us something we do not know). We challenge anyone to search our entire site.
Nehanda Radio has also never written an article claiming that Chiyangwa forcibly had sex with former model Lindsey Ndlovu, telling her not to report the matter and that he had assaulted her. Those two key fabrications alone expose the desperation behind Chiyangwa's lawsuit.
I know the websites who ran those stories and it was not Nehanda Radio. But if Chiyangwa's legal team is so incompetent they cannot separate which website is which then it is them who will be in for a rude awakening. But you get the sense the lies in the court application are deliberate.
Nehanda Radio is based in the United Kingdom and any lawsuit filed at the High Court in Zimbabwe is a silly publicity stunt. Chiyangwa knows he has a clumsy case that is why he is deliberately approaching a court with no jurisdiction over us.
We can prove beyond reasonable doubt that Chiyangwa is a man of loose morals whose own wife of 25 years Elizabeth Juma filed a detailed High Court petition documenting his many affairs. We have also published irrefutable photographic evidence of Chiyangwa hugging and kissing different girlfriends.
We can prove beyond reasonable doubt that most of Chiyangwa's wealth was corruptly acquired. In fact a report compiled by a committee of Harare City councilors four years ago exposed how Chiyangwa and Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, with help from two council employees, illegally grabbed vast tracts of prime land from the city on the cheap, to sell for huge profits.
Instead of being arrested, it was Chiyangwa himself who engineered the swift arrest of the councillors behind the audit. Chiyangwa was not done. He also caused the arrest of journalists Stanley Gama, Jennifer Dube, Feluna Nleya and Vincent Kahiya who reported on the land scandal.
This is how most of the rich and powerful figures in Zimbabwe operate. They think they can intimidate journalists with arbitrary arrests and lawsuits based on compensation figures from Mars. Nehanda Radio will not be intimidated and will continue to cover stories without fear or favour.
When Chiyangwa is serious about suing us, he knows where to find us. His circus at the Harare High Court is a publicity stunt meant to appease his fans. If he thinks he has a reputation worth US$250 million we can only express our sadness at how deluded he is.
Source - Nehanda Radio
