FORMER Zanu PF youth league deputy secretary Lewis Matutu
has questioned the party’s secretary for administration Obert Mpofu’s Doctor of
Philosophy Degree (PHD) qualifications and his source of wealth while
responding to a $10 million defamation suit filed against him by the senior
party official.
Mpofu initiated litigation against Matutu in June last
year, after the former youth leader addressed a press conference at Zanu PF
headquarters in which he accused the former Home Affairs minister of
corruption.
However, in his
response, Matutu demanded further particulars to Mpofu’s claim.
“To enable him to plead, defendant (Matutu) requests the
following further particulars: On what basis is the plaintiff (Mpofu) referred
to as a doctor, which institution conferred him with the doctorate degree, a
confirmation of his credentials to this effect is requested?” Matutu queried.
Matutu further questioned who his audience was when he made
the alleged defamatory statement and the line of business Mpofu was in as well
as how he managed to raise capital for the business.
The former youth leader also asked Mpofu to divulge the
number of businesses that he had before holding public office and the ones he
acquired after holding public office.
Matutu also asked Mpofu to list the number of properties
that he had in Zimbabwe, clearly separating the ones he acquired before and
after holding public office, as well as explain how he managed to raise the
funds to acquire the properties.
“What fame does the plaintiff have in the eyes of the
public?” Matutu further queried.
In response, Mpofu said he was a Doctor of Philosophy in
Policy Studies, which he obtained from the Zimbabwe Open University in 2011.
In relation to questions raised by Matutu over how he
managed to acquire his properties, Mpofu said: “The particularity requested in
all these paragraphs is not necessary for purposes of pleading.
The request is an
inquisitorial foray calculated to abuse the procedure of requesting for further
particulars. Further, and in any event, these are issues of evidence and the
defendant is not handicapped from pleading,’ Mpofu charged.
Matutu, however, further demanded how and when Mpofu got to
know about the alleged defamatory statement.
“What steps, if any, did the plaintiff take to have his
position known with regards to the allegations before approaching the courts?”
Matutu further questioned.
In his court papers, Mpofu said Matutu’s statements were
defamatory in that he claimed that despite the country’s ample human and
natural resources, corrupt individuals like the former Home Affairs minister
were continually perpetuating “alarming socio-economic imbalances” and were
undoing the gains brought by war of liberation heroes.
“The statement, in its defamatory, false and misleading
allegations states the following about the plaintiff: that the plaintiff has violated
the very foundation of the fight for democracy in Zimbabwe because of his
corrupt proclivities, that the plaintiff’s corrupt inclinations continue to
undermine socio-economic transformation in Zimbabwe and, as a corollary, the
defendant’s generation is suffering immensely,” Mpofu said in his court
affidavit. Daily News
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