Judgment No CCZ 2/14 2
Const. Application No CCZ 78/12
published an article concerning the complainant, Munyaradzi Kereke, who is the founder
and Chairman of the Green Card Medical Aid Society (the Society). The article stated
that the Society was unable to pay its members and staff as well as its creditors and that it
was on the brink of collapse as its expenditure outstripped its income.
The applicants were subsequently arrested and charged under s 96 of the Criminal
Law Code. It was alleged that they published the foregoing statements knowing that they
were false and intending to cause serious harm to the reputations of Kereke and the
Society.
The application before this Court, as originally posited, was for the offence of
criminal defamation as defined in s 96 of the Criminal Law Code to be declared
unconstitutional and struck down as being null and void. The same relief was initially
propounded by Adv. Morris at the hearing of the matter. However, after it was observed
by the Court that the application in its original form did not address the relevant
provisions of the new Constitution, the application was confined to the consistency of the
offence with the former Constitution.
The relief now sought is for the perpetual stay of prosecution of the applicants in
respect of the offence of criminal defamation allegedly committed under the aegis of the
former Constitution. It was noted that the decision of the Court in this matter would also
affect the prosecution of several other cases involving offences allegedly committed
before the advent of the new Constitution.