Former ambassador wins defamation case

A former Zimbabwean ambassador to Australia has won $150 000 in a defamation case in Canberra against a journalist who published damaging allegations about her. New Zimbabwe reports that Reason Wafawarova has been ordered to pay Jacqueline Zwambila in general and aggravated damages after he falsely claimed she had lost her temper and stripped in front of three embassy officials. The article suggested she was angry when the three denied leaking information to a Harare newspaper. Zwambila said the claims were not true and did irreparable damage to her reputation when they were published in Zimbabwe in 2010. ‘In over 13 years of working in politics, I diligently worked to gain respect and the reputation of being worthy of the position of my country's ambassador,’ Zwambila is quoted in the report as saying.