Opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere has threatened to sue former Zimpapers staffer Edmund Kudzayi over a story in which he alleged that she is having an affair with top businessman Tinashe Murapata leading to the collapse of the latter’s marriage.
Through her lawyers, Honey and Blanckenberg, Mahere claims the story was published by an online publication, Kukurigo, reportedly run by Kudzayi.
The publication revealed pictures of the two at a funeral of the late law expert Alex Magaisa and others at different places. Kudzayi alleged that Mahere’s WhatsApp messages asking for money are what exposed the claimed affair before Murapata’s wife dumped the marriage last year February.
But Mahere has since dismissed the allegations and demanded a retraction within 24 hours, failure of which she said she will be taking a legal action.
“There is a clear implication in the published story as well as your tweets leading up to such publication, to the effect that our client was involved in an affair with a married man which resulted in the breakdown of his marriage,” Mahere’s lawyers said.
“Such untruths have the effect of harming our client’s character as well as her professional and personal reputation. For the avoidance of doubt, it is categorically denied that our client has had an affair with any married man, or that she is responsible for the breakdown of any marriage.
“To that end, we are instructed to demand, as we hereby do, that you publish a retraction of the story and clarify on both your Twitter and through the Kukurigo platform that there is no evidence that our client had an affair with the named individual, nor is there any evidence that she was in any way involved in the breakdown of his marriage, which marriage was-according to your reports-terminated more than 18 months ago.
“The same should be published within 24 hours of receipt of this letter, failing which we have instructions to institute legal action against you.”
Kudzayi has, however, made it clear that he will not retract his tweet.
