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Fungai Lupande Court Reporter
The three Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe staffers who were facing charges of criminal defamation were freed yesterday after the court ruled that the law under which they were being charged had been outlawed by the Constitutional Court.
ANZ finance manager Zweli Sibanda, group editor Stanley Gama and reporter Thomas Fungisai Kwaramba were being accused of criminally defaming businessman Mr Kamal Khalfan.
Their release came after ANZ, represented by Sidanda, Kwaramba (31) and Gama (40), made an application for referral of the matter to the Constitutional Court.
The trio was facing three counts of criminally defaming Mr Khalfan in articles published in the Daily News.
Releasing the three, Harare magistrate Mr Milton Serima made reference to the case of The Standard newspaper editor Nevanji Madanhire and a reporter Nqaba Matshazi who were facing similar charges of criminal defamation.
In respect of The Standard staffers, the Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that criminal defamation should be struck off the statutes because it was not a justifiable law in a democratic society.
Madanhire and Matshazi were arrested and charged under Section 96 of the Criminal Law Code after publishing an article on November 6, 2011 concerning the complainant, Dr Munyaradzi Kereke, who is the founder and chairman of the Green Card Medical Aid Society.
“The Constitutional Court made a ruling that outlaws criminal defamation in the case of Madanhire and Matshazi,” said Mr Serima. “Therefore, the application of referral of the matter to the ConCourt is frivolous and vexatious because the law in that regard has been outlawed.
“There is no basis to keep the accused on remand based on a law that has been outlawed. Further, remand of the accused is dismissed.”
Allegations are that on January 6, Gama, Kwaramba and the ANZ published a story with the intention of harming Mr Khalfan’s reputation.
The paper wrote: “Kamal Khalfan boasts about his connections with top Government officials and how he could arrange deals with the Zimbabwe Government. Zimbabwe has lost billions of dollars in sleazy deals, especially involving gold and diamonds and some top Government ministers are believed to be behind the illicit activities bleeding the country”.
It was alleged that the Daily News published another false statement about Mr Khalfan on January 7 and 29.
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