On the morning of 23 February 2000, Andy Moyse,the acting editor of the “Standard”, reporter Chengetayi Zvauya and managing director Clive Wilson were arrested for criminal defamation over a story which appeared on 30 January. The story claimed that the government-sponsored draft constitution was printed in September 1999, long before the Constitutional Commission’s outreach programme […]
On the morning of 23 February 2000, Andy Moyse,the acting editor of the “Standard”, reporter Chengetayi Zvauya and managing director Clive Wilson were arrested for criminal defamation over a story which appeared on 30 January. The story claimed that the government-sponsored draft constitution was printed in September 1999, long before the
Constitutional Commission’s outreach programme had completed gathering people’s opinions. The Constitutional Commission presented the draft constitution to President Mugabe on 30 November 1999.
The story quoted sources at Government Printers who confirmed that the batch of the draft constitution that was printed in November was the same as the draft printed in September.
The spokesperson of the Constitutional Commission, Jonathan Moyo, denied the claims made by the “Standard” report through the same paper. He dismissed the paper’s claims as “criminal lies”, saying it was impossible that anything could have been printed before the plenary session on 28 November, as changes to the draft were still being made. He added that copies of the draft constitution did not come from Government Printers, but from independent contractors.
The “Standard” apologised for the story in its 20 February issue and admitted it was “entirely untrue”. Moyse also resigned from the paper as a result of the story.
