Nyarota faces imprisonment over US$60k debt




Geoffrey Nyarota
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VETERAN journalist and founding editor of the privately owned Daily News, Geoffrey Nyarota faces imprisonment for failing to settle a debt he owes the newspaper’s publishers Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ).

ANZ have filed summons against Nyarota with the High Court seeking to recover a debt which arose back in 2016.

This is after he was ordered to reimburse the publisher US$60 000 he pocketed after selling his website, Zimbabwe Times to the company back in 2019.

Nyarota was hit with the lawsuit after he failed to fulfil the terms of the sale agreement.

The veteran scribe was sued after he won a claim of US$90 000 against the Daily News which had unfairly dismissed him soon after the relaunch of the paper.

In the latest summons, ANZ said Nyarota is yet to settle the judgement debt despite several engagements.

The company is seeking an order to have Nyarota caged for failing to pay.

“You Geoffrey Nyarota of Sunridge Harare are called upon to pay the plaintiff, the sum US$60 000 together with interest on this sum at the prescribed rate from date of demand being June 9, 2010 to the date of payment in full and costs of suit in the sum of US$27 000.

“You are required to pay these sums by virtue of a judgement obtained against you in this honourable court on the 7th day of December 2016 under which you were ordered to pay the above stated sum, you were ordered to pay the costs in that case,” read the summons.

“You are at liberty to approach the plaintiff before the date of the hearing and to make an offer of settlement of the sum due.

“Unless you pay the plaintiff (ANZ) the sums specified or unless the plaintiff accepts an offer of settlement which you have made to it, you will appear before the High Court on the date and time specified. If you do not do so, a writ of personal attachment may be issued against you and you may be committed to prison,” further read part of the summons.

In December 2016, High Court Judge, Ammy Tsanga ordered Nyarota to reimburse ANZ after the website deal went wrong.

She ruled the journalist “a festering grievance relating to the divesture of control of the website from his hands which he had been prepared to countenance in expectation of a role to play.” – Newzimbabwe