HARARE model Tafadzwa Mushunje has approached the High Court seeking an order to force Home Affairs Minister Cain Mathema and Prosecutor General Kumbirai Hodzi to pay a total of US$45 000 in damages following her arrest three years ago.
Mushunje was arrested for reportedly deliberately infecting his boyfriend’s minor child with HIV/AIDS.
According to court papers, on August 8 2018 the court ordered Mathema (1st respondent) and Commissioner General of Police Godwin Matanga (2nd respondent) to pay US$20 000 for wrongfully arresting Mushunje. It was ordered that Prosecutor General Kumbirai Hodzi cited as 3rd respondent pay the model US $25 000.
The three however have either ignored or failed to pay forcing the model to seek recourse at the High Court again.
“On September 24 2018, my lawyers wrote to the respondents requesting the settlement of the judgment debt.
“On November 10 2018, I am informed that my legal practitioners wrote a letter to the respondent legal practitioners informing them of the existence of the court order and the bill of taxed costs demanding US$45 000 payment of defamation according to the courts rule and US$9 940 taxed cost,” reads part of the summons
The respondent lawyers responded to Mushunje’s case saying they were waiting for Mathema’s authority to pay the debt.
The alleged process has now taken three months after without payment.
“It has been more than three months since the alleged processing of papers and no payment had been advanced to myself or my legal practitioners neither have the respondents presented to me a payment plan,” Mushunje told the court.
Mushunje was arrested three years ago after the false allegations by the child’s mother of deliberately infecting her lover’s child with HIV. The model was awarded US$45 000 damages by the High Court after it was ruled that the arrest was illegal.
