FORMER Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) top official and Bikita West legislator Munyaradzi Kereke’s legal woes continued to mount as he appeared at the High Court yesterday on a $2 million defamation lawsuit while his rape trial is still pending at the Harare Magistrates’ Court.
BY CHARLES LAITON
Kereke, who served as adviser to former RBZ governor Gideon Gono, appeared before High Court judge Justice Davison Moses Foroma, intending to defend the lawsuit filed by Harare lawyer Charles Warara, who is also privately prosecuting him in the lower court on charges of sexually abusing his relative’s minor daughters at gunpoint.
The matter, however, failed to be heard after Kereke applied for postponement, saying one of his co-defendants, Muswapadare Taruvinga, was now deceased.
The matter was then postponed sine die (indefinitely).
In the claim, Warara said he was defamed by the MP while representing a 12-year-old girl allegedly sexually abused by the Zanu PF legislator.
Warara cited Harare lawyer James Makiya, the now-deceased Taruvinga, Anna Taruvinga and Kereke as respondents in the defamation case.
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He argued that a letter published by Makiya in the Daily News in 2012, at the behest of his co-respondents, damaged his professional reputation.
The alleged letter insinuated that Warara was abusing the girl he purported to be representing.
Initially, Warara had demanded $500 000 compensation, but in February 2013, scaled up the claim to $2 million.
But Kereke denied the allegations, saying he never published or caused publication of the alleged defamatory statements.
Kereke’s co-defendants have also filed their defence to the claim, arguing they never defamed Warara in any way.
