High Court dismisses ex-Netone CEO’s ZW$2m defamation case against former Herald journalists

High Court Justice David Mangota has dismissed a ZW$2 million defamation claim by ex-NetOne chief executive Reward Kangai against his former employer and state-controlled Zimpapers journalists, including erstwhile Herald editor Ceasar Zvayi, reports Newshawks which followed court proceedings.

Kangai had in September 2019 issued summons against his former employer and Zimbabwe Newspapers journalists and managers namely, Ceasar Zvayi, Lloyd Gumbo, Lincolin Towindo, Alex Marufu and The Herald claiming defamation damages arising from an article published on 11 March 2016.

NetOne’s acting board chairperson Susan Muchaneta Mutangadura challenged Kangai’s lawsuit, saying he had failed to pursue his claim for sometime, hence the plea for its dismissal.

The High court found favour in NetOne’s challenge stating that Kangai was too emotional and ended up bringing up issues not relevant to the matter before the court.

“It moved me to dismiss the claim of the respondent with costs which are at an attorney and client scale. The application succeeds,” the judge said.

The Judge added:

“The respondent appears to have approached the application with some emotion and a sense of exasperation.

“The emotion which accompanied his response to the application threw him off balance, so to speak.

“He dedicated one half of his notice of opposition to matters which were irrelevant to the application.

“The applicant’s alleged non payment to him of his terminal benefits, its coming to court with alleged dirty hands as well as its alleged violation of his constitutional rights were all irrelevant to what had been placed before me.”