By Rutendo Ngara
LAWYERS representing a local trucking company, TinMac Motors, want former opposition legislator Fadzayi Mahere, to prove that the company was corruptly founded.
In addition, Rubaya and Chatambudza, have also demanded that Mahere — who is also a lawyer — provide supporting evidence that the trucking company is owned by Youth minister, Tino Machakaire.
The lawyers have warned that they would slap Mahere with a US$100 000 lawsuit if she fails to prove her claims.
This comes as Mahere is already under pressure from Machakaire to retract claims that she made on social media, which the Youth minister said were slanderous, false and sullied his standing as a public official. TinMac lawyer, Admire Rubaya, has accused Mahere of acting recklessly on social media and unlawfully targeting private firms.
This development follows a series of posts by Mahere on X (formerly Twitter), in which she alleged the company is corruptly benefiting from government tenders in connection with the youth minister.
“Our client noted with dismay and displeasure that, with great fervour and conviction, you subsumed and conflated the person of Tino Machakaire with that of TinMac Motors (Private) Limited, in circumstances where the two are not only distinct legal persons, but where the former is not even a director or shareholder of TinMac Motors(Private) Limited,” reads part of the letter of demand.
Rubaya said Tinmac has chosen to pursue civil remedies under defamation law, even though Mahere’s alleged actions could constitute a criminal offence under the Cyber and Data Protection Act. The company has given Mahere 24 hours to delete the posts and issue a public apology.
The company states that filing criminal charges would open the door for Mahere to claim political victimisation. Instead, they are seeking a retraction, an apology, and documentation proving the allegations made on X.
“Despite the clear criminal nature of your actions and the resources available to our client for purposes of pursuing criminal charges against you, our client has firmly decided not to pursue that route. “Firstly your brazen recklessness suggests that this is clearly what you intended to achieve when you targeted our client so that you might then cry political victimisation once you are asked to account for your brazenly criminal actions.
“Secondly, because our client is of the firm view that defamation law remedies will be more effective, particularly since, as someone that recently won Zimbabwe’s largest defamation award in the courts, you will not have the opportunity to complain that Zimbabwe’s judicial system is “captured.” In response to the allegations made on X, TinMac is demanding that Mahere provide specific evidence.
“We have been instructed to demand you furnish our client with documentation to substantiate your allegations that it has abused government duty-free facility to import personal cars, presumably for… Machakaire, “That TinMac was founded and its operations are funded from proceeds of crime.
“That our client through … Machakaire was at the centre of an alleged US$8 million tax evasion case instituted by the Zimbabwe AntiCorruptior Commission relating to importation of motor vehicles. “That the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission was forced to drop a criminal case against our client after the intervention of senior politicians,” the letter says.
