Grace Mugabe to defend defamation lawsuit

Grace Mugabe has filed notice that she will fight a US$3.9m lawsuit in which she is being sued along with her son Russell Goreraza and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). Diamond dealer Jamal Hamed and six of his companies filed summons against the former first lady, Goreraza, ZRP Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga and two police officers, Kennedy Fero and Nyambo Viera, in June. This after Mugabe forcibly took Hamed's properties in Harare when he reportedly failed to refund $1.4m advanced to him for a diamond ring. In 2016, High Court Justice Clement Phiri ordered the defendants to hand back the properties. The Sunday Times reports that Hamed wants Mugabe, Goreraza, Matanga, Fero and Viera to pay him $2m for filing ‘wrongful and defamatory’ statements in the court between October 2016 and December 2017. Hamed was accused of being a dangerous international criminal with wide-ranging criminal activities in Zimbabwe and was sought by Interpol in terms of a warrant of arrest. He said these statements were widely published in print and online media in Zimbabwe and internationally.