MDC-T activist Stewart Shakespeare Mukoyi has filed a $500 000 defamation lawsuit against Zanu PF politburo member and Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo, claiming the minister maliciously implicated him in the brutal attack of MDC-T vice-president Thokozani Khupe and two senior party officials in Bulawayo two weeks ago.
BY CHARLES LAITON
Through his lawyers, Mavhunga and Associates, Mukoyi filed the litigation on Friday last week saying Moyo’s offensive tweet posted on August 7 had damaged his reputation.
Part of the tweet read: “Shakespeare Mukoyi, an MDC-T youth leader, was in the group that violently attacked Thokozani Khupe, Abednego Bhebhe, Lovemore Moyo and others”.
Mukoyi, through his lawyers, submitted that the statement was understood to mean that he is an unprincipled and violent youth leader who has no regard of the law, is of low moral fibre and that he is not accommodative of people with a different opinion or viewpoint to his.
“The statement by the defendant (Moyo) is wrongful and defamatory of the plaintiff (Mukoyi). The statement was made with the intention to defame the plaintiff and injure his reputation. The statement was understood by the addressee and was intended by the defendant to mean that the plaintiff was present when the political leaders in his party were violently attacked,” Mukoyi said.
“As a result of the defamation, the plaintiff has been damaged in his reputation and has suffered damages in the sum of $500 000,” Mukoyi said.
Moyo, who is being sued in his personal capacity, is yet to respond to the lawsuit.
