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Madhuku scoffs at Macdom lawsuit
Platform for Youth Development
January 16, 2012

The long standing dispute between Chisumbanje villagers and Green Fuel's Macdom Investments (Pvt) Limited has taken a new twist after the latter sued Platform for Youth Development Director, Claris Madhuku on $USD100 000 defamation charges in a desperate move to silence his leadership on the matter.

Macdom Investments through its lawyers, Ahmed and Ziyambi sued Madhuku on charges that "he caused the publication of defamatory articles about the plaintiff (Macdom Investments)," read the summons.

"The Plaintiff has instituted legal proceedings against the Defendant (Claris Madhuku) claiming payment in the sum of USD100 000.00 in respect of the damages suffered by the plaintiff," reads the opening statement of the summons.

The two articles referred to in the summons were published in September 2011 under the following headlines, "Chisumbanje Villagers furious over lack of consultation for ethanol project" and The Chisumbanje land dispute,"

The company went on to quote a number of paragraphs translated to mean that the plaintiff is cruel and insensitive to the plight of local communities, cheating the local communities, dishonourable, abusing political connections, pursuing a nefarious colonial agenda, dishonest and conducting its business in contravention of the laws of Zimbabwe.

"As consequence of the publication of the defamatory materials by the Defendant, the Plaintiff has suffered damages in the sum of USD100 00.00," Macdom noted.

In response, Madhuku through his lawyers, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) entered an appearance to defend and requested the further particulars in the form of:

The full names and addresses of each and every Director of Macdom Investments Private Limited as well as the address of the said Company's registered office, the nature and extent of the Plaintiff's involvement in the ethanol project, details of how the defendant caused the publication of the said articles.

Madhuku further requests particulars suggesting the number of people who have seen, read or accessed the articles, the fora the plaintiff alleges the Defendant made these statements, the nature and or extent of the Plaintiff's involvement in the "ethanol project", the date the plaintiff alleges the Defendant made these statements, details as to whom the Plaintiff alleges the Defendant made these statements.

In addition Madhuku requests details as to how the Plaintiff arrived at the sum of US100 000.00 as damages and every party of the article which suggests that Macdom is dishonest, cruel and insensitive, dishonourable, cheating local communities, abusing political connections, abusing war veterans and acting in contrary to the Labour laws of Zimbabwe.

Madhuku noted that the submission of the above mentioned particulars will enable him to plead to the Macdom Investments' claims.

Commenting on the defamation claims by Macdom Investments, Madhuku said the desperate moves by the company were not going to force him to abandon his work. "This is just one of their countless ploys to force me out of my human rights work," he said.

"I am a Human Rights Defender and will never be silent in the face of injustice, as long as my conscience tells me that justice has been short-changed for greediness and pursuit of profit I will unequivocally stand for justice," he added. What the company claims as defamation is what everybody in Chisumbanje believes, it will be cowardice to disown any word from the articles since they truly reflect the opinion of the villagers. If anything Macdom has a responsibility to tell the whole world what their plan for the community is, went on Madhuku.

This is one of the numerous ploys by the Macdom Investments management and state security agents to silence Madhuku. In October last year, they alleged that he asked for a bribe from the company manager Graeme Smith, but the joke was quickly dismissed giving them another task which we believe now came in the form of these defamation claims.

Meanwhile the villagers have defied all odds and went on to till their land against company instructions. The community promised the company a backlash should there be efforts to once again plough down their crops.

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