via NewsDay journalists granted referral to ConCourt – The Zimbabwean 16/02/2016
Harare magistrate Elijah Makomo on 15 February 2016 granted an application by Nqaba Matshazi and Xolisani Ncube journalists with NewsDay to have their case of publishing falsehoods referred to the Consitutional Court arguing that the law used to charge them is unconstitutional.
The two are charged with publishing falsehoods in breach of section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. Matshazi who is the deputy editor and his reporter, Ncube, are jointly charged with Sifikile Thabete, legal secretary of Alpha Media Holdings publishers of NewsDay.
background
The case in point arose from a story published by NewsDay titled: CIO “secretly” get bonuses. On 6 January 2016, NewsDay reported that the government had last year ‘quietly’ paid CIO operatives their annual bonuses despite postponing, several times, paying the salaries of civil servants.
COMMENTS
Why doesn’t someone tell us whether the story was TRUE or not???