Kombayi wins Z$112 billion defamation suit against Mnangagwa

By Lance Guma
06 March 2006

Its not often a government Minister is ordered to pay Z$112 billion (US$20m) in a defamation suit in Zimbabwe, but when that happens to someone like Emerson Mnangagwa you know the political stakes are high. When Gweru businessman and veteran politician Patrick Kombayi sued the rural housing minister for making false claims about his role in the liberation struggle in a book ‘Simon Vengai Muzenda’, few observers held out any hopes he could win such a claim. The Bulawayo High Court however ruled in Kombayi’s favour and issued an order for the attachment of Mnangagwa’s property worth Z$112 billion. This after the former intelligence supremo ignored the court case.

Mnangagwa’s fall from favour within Zanu PF seems to have been confirmed by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku signing as a witness to the attachment order. The same ‘writ of execution’ was granted against former cabinet minister Frederick Shava, Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe, the author of the book and Mambo Press the publishers, who are all accused of defaming Kombayi. What is even more remarkable is how the case went unreported since November last year when the courts granted the first order. It took a journalist at the Zimbabwe Standard, Gibbs Dube, who trawled through court records and came across the file to bring it out in the open 4 months later. Court officials had not even bothered to put the case on the public rolls.

Kombayi’s court papers accuse Mnangagwa and Shava of being the source of ‘concocted lies’, which were meant to undermine the role he played in the liberation struggle. Shava is alleged to have accused Kombayi of being part of a coup plot in 1977 and 1978 that also involved the late Henry Hamadziripi in trying to topple Robert Mugabe from the party leadership. Mnangagwa on the other hand is accused of portraying Kombayi as someone totally opposed to the leadership of the late Vice President Simon Muzenda. Kombayi felt their statements were meant to portray him as a sell out. He says he used his immense wealth and influence to coordinate the supply of arms to freedom fighters in Zambia during the war.

In an interview with Newsreel, Kombayi said Mnangagwa and Shava simply wrote to him denying the accusations but avoided entering a defence in court and hence the default judgment. The author of the book Bhebhe, and his publishers Mambo Press, have however entered a plea to contest the defamation suit. Kombayi says he has another lawsuit before the courts where he is suing government for the 1990 shooting in which a state security operative tried to assassinate him. Kombayi received medical treatment in the United Kingdom and says the government has to meet those costs and compensate the permanent injury to his manhood, which he suffered as a result.

The Zanu PF succession battles have seen Emmerson Mnangagwa, formerly Mugabe’s right hand man, fall from grace after allegedly trying to block the ascendancy of Joyce Mujuru to the Vice Presidency. The now famous Tsholotsho meeting is said to have plotted Mnangagwa’s elevation, in defiance of Mugabe’s wishes.