ZANU PF politburo member and Higher Education minister
Jonathan Moyo has refused to apologise over his alleged offensive remarks to
suspended MDC-T deputy treasurer-general, Charlton Hwende and challenged him to
a legal contest.
Hwende last week threatened to file a $1 million lawsuit
against Moyo if the minister fails to apologise for statements posted on his
Twitter account insinuating that the MDC-T officials was involved in the
intra-party violence that occurred at the party’s Bulawayo provincial offices.
But Moyo, in another tweet yesterday, declared that he was
ready to face off with Hwende in court.
“Violence does not pay. See you in court $1m dreamer,”
tweeted Moyo in response to Hwende’s threat to sue him for $1 million.
Moyo’s defiance comes at a time MDC-T national deputy youth
leader, Shakespear Mukoyi, has also threatened to sue both State-owned Herald
and Moyo over the same remarks.
“We have been instructed to demand that you retract your
statement on the same forum and with the same prominence as you gave the
initial article within the next five days,” part of Mukoyi’s letter of demand
reads.
“We have also been instructed that you issue a public
apology for demeaning our client, whom you wrongly identified in the said
picture.”
Mukoyi also demanded that Zimbabwe Newspapers, the
publishers of The Herald, retracts its article published on August 8 written
under the headline Tsvangirai dispatched thugs to Bulawayo.
The youth leader said the article inferred that he was also
involved in the skirmishes, which left MDC-T vice-president, Thokozani Khupe,
chairman, Lovemore Moyo and organising secretary, Abednico Ncube injured.
Mukoyi’s lawyers claimed that their client was not in
Bulawayo on the day in question.
“Your article is highly defamatory, as it carries that our
client is a thug, is of violent disposition, a puppet of low moral fibre that
can be hired to do evil things and that he cannot accepts political viewpoints
different from his,” the letter reads.
“Such retraction and apology should be made within the next
five days, failure of which we have instructions to initiate legal proceedings
for defamation of character.” newsday
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