By Wezzie Gausi:
The High Court has ordered Joshua Chisa Mbele to pay the sum of K75 million to Innocentia Ottober for defamation.
On September 21 2023, the court entered into assessment of six cases of libel, aggravated damages for libel, exemplary damages for libel plus costs of action on indemnity basis.
According to the court order on assessment of damages signed by Assistant Registrar Brian Sambo, K45 million is for compensatory and aggravated damages for defamation.
The document also indicates that the sum of K30 million is for exemplary damages.
“The whole amount of money is said to be paid within seven days from the day of the publication of the document. The cost is the claimant [sic], and shall be assessed, separately if not agreed upon by the parties,” the document reads.
By the foregoing facts, Ottober said it was wrong for the defendant to publish that the Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba had handpicked the claimant for the position of chairperson for the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority.
She added that publications by the defendant that she was a “corrupt arranger” appointed by Zamba were far from the truth and painful to her.
She referred to Exhibit IO 6, where the defendant wrote and published the words “Osaopa munthu wakuba” and “Please Sue”.
She stated that if one searched her name on Google even on the date of the hearing, the words that were published by the defendant still appeared and were specifically quoted in a Malawi 24 article.
The court document indicates that the day before the hearing, the claimant had searched on Google and articles with those words still appeared.
The claimant stressed that the issue seriously defamed her because the articles that were referring to the defendant’s posts were permanent such that the defamation was still subsisting.
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