Court Orders M’membe to Pay for Defamation The Lusaka High Court has found Fred M’membe’s Post Newspaper guilty of defaming businessman Sonny Mulenga. Mulenga is also a former minister in the Chiluba administration. This is in a matter where Mulenga had sued the Post Newspaper for alleging he abused public funds amounting to about US $50 million, a claim they have failed to prove. But after considering the case and evidence, judge Nicola Sharpe-Phiri found the Post Newspapers guilty of defamation and awarded K35,000 damages to Mulenga with interest. “I am satisfied that the plaintiff is entitled to an award of general damages to compensate the defendant for both the injury to his reputation and the hurt to his feelings. Taking into consideration the imputation of the article on the plaintiff and his standing in society, I order that the plaintiff be paid the sum of K35,000 by the defendant as general damages for libel. “The judgment sum shall attract interest at the short term bank deposit rate from the date of writ to the date of judgment and thereafter at the average lending rate as determined by the Bank of Zambia up to the date of full payment,” judge Sharpe-Phiri said. Mulenga sued the Post Newspapers on 14th October 2010 for the defamatory article that was published in the Sunday Post on 25th July 2010. Mulenga stated through his lawyer Milner Katolo that the words were reasonably understood and portrayed him as a thief, morally bankrupt and that he is corrupt. He stated that as a surveyor, his work had reduced with the banks and that he lost an opportunity of tendering to value Tazara pipeline. He noted this was after the team considering the tenders heard of the allegations and removed his name from the list of people short listed for the contract. Mulenga further argued that as a majority shareholder in Chainama Hotel, he lost business because most Non Governmental Organisations cancelled their workshops after hearing of the allegations. He said he requested the Post Newspapers to apologise but that they declined to do so. Meanwhile the Post Newspapers failed to produce even a witness and only relied on lawyers submissions through Nchima Nchito. zambiareports/2014/03/10/court-orders-mmembe-pay-defamation/
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 15:46:30 +0000
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