ZIMBABWE Football Association (Zifa) chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze yesterday made an application for the matter in which he allegedly defamed his former boss Henrietta Rushwaya to be referred to the Supreme Court citing that his constitutional rights have been violated.
Report by Phillip Chidavaenzi
Mashingaidze’s lawyer Advocate Lewis Uriri, instructed by Ralf Maganga, told Harare magistrate Arnold Maburo he wanted the Supreme Court to establish whether or not the provisions of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Section 96) under which his client was being charged were consistent with the declaration of rights found in Chapter 3 of the country’s Constitution.
Uriri said his client’s constitutional right to a fair trial needed to be guaranteed, but that was unlikely to happen if the outcome of the trial would be “dependent on the subjective views of the investigating officer, the prosecutor and the magistrate”.
He said if the prosecution was allowed to continue, that would be in breach of the accused person’s right to liberty as provided for in Section 18 and 20 of the Constitution which guarantees the accused person’s right to liberty.
“The Constitution is the supreme law of the country so any inconsistent law shall be void,” he said.
Prosecutor Public Mpofu of the Attorney-General’s Office indicated to the court that the State intended to oppose the application and give a substantive response on May 27.
The criminal defamation charges arose after Mashingaidze accused some of the national team players of visiting Rushwaya’s offices for purposes of match-fixing.
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It is alleged he supplied false information to the media alleging that matches against Zimbabwe and two teams, Guinea and Mozambique might have been “fixed” as Knowledge Musona and Ovidy Karuru had been seen coming out of Rushwaya’s business premises.
It is alleged that after the encounter, Mashingaidze gave interviews to the media including ZBC, NewsDay and The Herald alleging that the games between Zimbabwe and Guinea, and Mozambique might have been fixed.
The State alleges that the information was widely publicised and circulated on the Internet and social networks and that the utterances were meant to destroy Rushwaya in the eyes of the public as they suggested she could not be trusted to be involved in any sporting discipline or any business transaction.
