Harare: ZIMBABWE’s controversial former First Lady Grace Mugabe has been slapped with a $100 000 defamation lawsuit by small-scale gold miners.
The miners accuse Grace of chracter defamation after she described them as thieves and illegal gold panners who had invaded her Mazowe farm.
The miners, Shephered Nyazvigo and Phillip Makanya, are embroiled in a land dispute with Grace.
“Further the defendant alleges the plaintiffs as untrustworthy people and thieves who are stealing the property belonging to the defendant.
“The plaintiffs are now being viewed by their business associates, colleagues and members of the public and society at large as thieves and illegal miners and yet the plaintiffs hold licences to carry out mining operations thereon,” the miners said in their summons filed Wednesday.
“Wherefore plaintiff’s claim against defendant is for; defamation of character damages in the sum of $100 000, interest thereon calculated at the prescribed rate of 5% per annum from the date of summons to date of judgment and cost of suit.”
Grace is yet to respond to the summons.
Once a secretary in Mugabe’s office, controversy has followed Grace who alos faces arrest overt a ‘fake’ PhD degree awarded to her in 2014 by the University Of Zimbabwe (UZ).
Grace was awarded a PhD in sociology three months after enrollment.
Past reports said she had dropped out of a correspondence course at the University of London after failing most of the exams with marks as low as 7%.
