TOP lawyer and civil rights activist, Advocate Fadzai
Mahere is suing another legal practitioner and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s
office employee, Petina Gappah, for $1 million for alleged defamation of
character.
Through her lawyers Coghlan, Welsh and Guest, Mahere filed
summons at the High court on Thursday this week and Gappah is yet to file her
appearance to defend.
In her declaration, Mahere said Gappah recently published a
series of tweets on her micro-blogging Twitter account @VascoDaGappah accusing
her of corruptly enrolling at the University of Zimbabwe and the Cambridge
University and also attempting to seduce Gappah’s boyfriend at some point.
“In a series of tweets on Twitter on the night of Saturday
September 29, 2018, defendant (Gappah) published a series of tweets about
plaintiff (Mahere) to the effect that plaintiff did not qualify to be admitted
into the University of Zimbabwe for her Law degree,” Mahere said.
“Plaintiff was admitted into the University of Zimbabwe
only because her father was a permanent secretary in the government and he used
his influence to get her admitted because she was not qualified to be admitted
on her credentials.”
Mahere further said Gappah indicated she wrote her the
“essay that enabled her (Mahere) to get into Cambridge University for her
Master’s Degree”, adding Gappah further said: “Mahere tried to get into her
(Gappah) then partner’s pants”.
The advocate also said Gappah’s allegations were highly
defamatory, given that they were retweeted several times and published on
various electronic social media platforms.
“The allegations were false and highly defamatory. These
false allegations were seen not only by the defendant’s followers on Twitter,
but were also retweeted several times and carried on various electronic, social
media platforms and online newspapers as the defendant must have known would
happen,” she said.
“They have damaged plaintiff’s standing as a lawyer, law
lecturer and practicing advocate and caused irreparable harm to her political
career and her influence as a civil society activist,” Mahere said, adding
Gappah refused to retract the allegations and apologise despite demand. Newsday
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