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Good day Bulawayo24 and Newsday teams.
I have read your article titled: “Rutendo Alleged Sponsor Exposed.” In this article, you alleged that Simon Rudland is the sponsor of my case against Innscor, and that you have gotten this information from court papers filed by my advocate Simba Chitando.
You go on to say that I have “alleged” that Innscorβs food has GMOs, and you have made similar assertions previously in other write-ups on me and Grain Millers Association, trying to make my factual statements sound baseless.
You also assert that in court papers, Simba Chitando says that he stopped being my advocate because of statements I made about having an appetite for underaged children.
All these are unsubstantiated claims you have made in your article and some that you have repeated on over five occasions since 2023, without at any point interviewing me or any other people you make unsubstantiated accusations against, in relation to Innscor vs Rutendo.
Additionally, you have never given me a right of reply to refute or confirm your allegations, which renders your paper in contravention of journalistic ethics.
Below are facts debunking your assertions, and as such, I demand a right of reply, retractions, and apologies. I believe that it’s only fair to give Simon the same courtesy. And cc-ed on this communication are my legal team and an associate of Simon Rudland.
The Facts:
1. Simon Rudland has never given me money and has never sponsored any of my legal battles against Innscor or any other person.
I challenge you and Simba Chitando to provide proof and evidence of when I have ever received financial assistance or payment from Simon Rudland for him to be considered my sponsor.
2. I perceive your insinuation that I could only stand up for issues that are dear to my organizationβs mandate, only when paid or sponsored by someone else, despite my fight against sanctions that you all witnessed, as defamatory, derogatory and undermining my standing.
3. More critically is you referring to me as a ZANU PF activist when I am not a member of ZANU PF.
I am the Chairman of ZASM, the CEO of Frontline Strat Marketing Consultancy, the Founder of Bereza Resources, the man who authored the anti-sanctions campaign that was adopted by government and the man who successfully removed sanctions on Zimbabwe, your family and 16 million other Zimbabweans.
4. I am not a ZANU PF member or activist but I am one of the nation’s biggest strategists and benefactors. I carry no brief for ZANU PF and feel insulted and deliberately diminished by the designation “ZANU PF activist” instead of the Chairman of ZASM which removed sanctions on Zimbabwe.
You must award me some respect even when serving the agenda of your sponsors, because I have delivered more benefit to you and 16 million Zimbabweans more than my other contemporaries.
5. Additionally, you also contradict your claims when you suggest that Simba’s affidavit said Simon would only sponsor me once we had proved that Simba was competent and doing his job well. How then could Simon have been my sponsor when he was still determining whether to join the fight or not?
6. I also challenge you to provide evidence that I or Simon Rudland are advancing a conspiracy to destroy Innscor and Zed Koudounaris by me merely pointing out the proven fact that they are breaking the law by selling GMOs for human consumption.
7. In fact, yesterday, when Simba was contacted by Simon Rudland, to explain why he was defaming him, he tried to extort Rudland, by saying he is undertaking this smear campaign to get money he is owed for removing sanctions on Zimbabwe as ZASM’s lawyer.
How he believes that Rudland should pay him for the work he did for ZASM, remains a mystery to us.
8. It is critical for you to acknowledge that Innscor is the one that took me to court, alleging that I defamed them by saying that their food contained GMOs and toxic cancer-causing chemicals.
Innscor Has GMOs And Carcinogens in Food.
8. The only thing I did was to defend myself from the allegation that I defamed them, and I did this by undertaking lab tests of their food and proving through these lab results that Innscor are indeed selling GMOs that contain MSG, glyphosate and other toxic chemicals that I outlined in my original video.
8. Nowhere in our court case, which is now six months old, has Innscor rebutted these claims, and in fact, in the court papers lodged by Grain Millers Association Zimbabwe in Harare, they say that their members (of which they were representing Innscor) have been importing GMOs on license and permission from NBA (National Biotech Authority). The NBA in its own answering papers to GMAZ has not corroborated this claim.
9. You will also note that on Monday the 24th of this month, the Herald ran an article which said that the government is now tightening GMO laws for the benefit of human health and the environment: read here https://www.herald.co.zw/zimbabwe-moves-to-strengthen-gmo-regulations/amp/.
This is a clear indication that this fight against illegal GMOs and Innscor that you have conspired to rubbish, has influenced the tightening of GMO policy in Zimbabwe, and clearly our government has found credence in my claims that Zimbabwe, which has the highest cancer death rate in the world, could be under threat from GMOs.
10. So, you denigrate me, a person who is fighting for yours and your family’s health alongside 16 million other people who canβt speak for themselves? And you do it for a few pieces of silver in the same way our chiefs of old sold our people into slavery?
11. Do you not realize that it shall cost you, your family and other Zimbabweans more in future to treat ailments caused by cancer vectors, than the small benefits you get from supporting companies that sell toxic food?
12. Do you not realize that GMOs will bring Africa into food colonialism once these GMOs have terminated all our seeds, and we become dependent on seeds from the west, that will cost more than gold?
13. Your own paper, not too long ago, wrote an article where NBA reiterated that cabinet gave permission for the importation of maize GMOs from South Africa only for the purpose of animal feed. The article was later removed from your website but the same is on Herald: read here https://www.herald.co.zw/nba-warns-against-illegal-gmo-maize-imports/amp/. Why did you remove the article, were you paid to remove it as you seem to be paid to advance narrow agendas that will harm you and your nation tomorrow?
14. Suffice to say, we have found soya, maize, and cotton GMOs in Innscor food like pork and mealie meal for human consumption, which is a contravention of NBAβs own regulations and cabinet directives.
15. These are facts presented in South African court by the same Simba Chitando that you are referencing here, but you chose to cast aspersions on claims that have been verified by your own source in court.
16. So, the fact that Innscor is selling food that contains GMOs and toxic chemicals has been verified in lab tests that are in the public domain and Innscor has failed to rebut those results in court or the media.
17. I have posted these tests and information on my social media pages. I have even made videos to update all Zimbabweans on the progress of the case, but you have deliberately ignored these facts to stick to your propaganda against me https://x.com/matinyarare/status/1784956620394332226?s=46.
18. Now the question is, are you practicing journalism or being paid to give biased and false narratives. And if you are manufacturing consent against an agenda supported by government, to protect our health, are you not committing treason for pay?
19. Even though I was forced to take down my original video claiming that Innscor has GMOs and toxic chemicals in their food, after getting lab tests to prove my assertion, I posted those test results and new write-ups asserting the same.
20. Over the past four months, Innscor has tried on two occasions to enforce their defamation order twice by applying for a contempt of court order, and whenever we went to court, with Simba Chitando in one case, they failed to advance their case.
21. So, it is no longer factually correct to just say Innscor won a defamation order against me, while obscuring the fact that they have failed to get a contempt of court order against me for factual articles and tests that I have posted, that prove that my original video was factual.
Is Simba Chitando In Court Against Me.
22. You also said the affidavit written by Simba is in court. No, that affidavit was not filed in court. The facts are, on Friday, 21st of June, Simba sent an email to my lawyers Edward Nathan Sonnebergs, threatening criminal proceedings for perjury against me in the Innscor contempt case.
23. In that affidavit, Chitando opens up by claiming that he stopped offering me his legal services because I wrote derogatory messages about 16-year-olds on Twitter in 2022. But why is he writing letters threatening my lawyers with opening a case in court when we are already in court? Why didnβt he simply file the criminal application instead of wasting time writing a letter to my lawyers?
24. It is because the affidavit sent by Simba Chitando to my lawyers and Innscor lawyers, not filed in court, is filled with lies (perjury) and will not stand in any court.
25. Not only is it filled with perjury, but it also violates attorney-client privilege and exposes his fraud of illegally removing me from ZASM (Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement) in July 2021 by forging the signature of another director, only to return me in January of 2022, when I discovered the fraud and threatened to open a criminal case.
26. The fact is Simba Chitando is no longer representing me and my company Frontline, because both Frontline and I fired him for incompetence, negligence and giving false advice which nearly sent me to jail. As for the issue of 16 years olds, he has been defending me on social media forums, alerting people that the video released on social media by Adam Ryns (an opposition member, was manipulated. See original video here for full context: https://x.com/matinyarare/status/1782902819869151708?s=46
27. The above claims are furnished in the answering papers we lodged with the court in my contempt hearing on the 9th of May, 2024, which resulted in Innscor withdrawing their contempt application.
28. I am the biggest client Simba ever had in his history as a lawyer. I have paid him millions of rands on the ZASM vs South African banks and U.S. government and Innscor cases. It is this money, that despite him being sent to join me to destroy ZASM so that we wouldnβt remove sanctions, that made him stay.
The reason he has gone on this social media smear campaign now, to a point where he is now attempting to extort Simon Rudland and other billionaires who I have got working relations with, is because he lives beyond his means in uptown apartments in Sandton, buying and wearing expensive watches from my fees and now I have closed the tap.
29. We are proceeding with pursing reparations for sanctions, and Simba will not be part of that team. It is these missed opportunities that Simba is aggrieved about, hence he is throwing his toys out of the cot.
30. The lies Simba puts in his affidavit, are enough to get Simba into trouble with the bar for violating various ethics of the legal ethics code and undertaking illegal activities.
31. This affidavit that he foolishly gave to Innscorβs lawyers and which they are now leaking into the public domains, is a huge risk to his career because it is a litany of lies told under oath that will get him into serious trouble.
32. Itβs clearly that the Advocate and MVR (Innscorβs lawyers) cannot proceed to court with the current affidavit deposed by Simba because it incriminates the Advocate and fails to prove the claim that I purged myself in court.
33. I even believe that same affidavit will make it impossible for Innscor lawyers to proceed in any other matter concerning Innscor, as long as we have this sworn affidavit by Simba that is filled with lies written under oath at the behest of Innscorβs lawyers and now being used for extortion.
34. As a result, in desperation and an attempt to get an upper hand, these false allegations made by Simba against me are being used to try and isolate me, get my legal team (which is one of South Africaβs big five firms) to cancel me, and to alienate my business stakeholders in the erroneous hope that I wonβt afford to defend myself.
36. The conspirators know that they canβt win this battle legally, so now they are using underhanded tactics, and what concerns me is that you have been co-opted into writing misleading and false articles, violating journalistic ethics of investigating the story and getting a balanced story. Itβs like you have become another Simba Chitando for hire.
36. I am now putting the fact on record here, and I expect you to give me a right of reply and to retract all the false articles you have written over the duration of this case.
37. Now that you have my email, I also expect you to confirm all facts you seek to write about me before writing misleading pieces that compromise my reputation and work I do for the country.
38. In the event you do not retract, apologize and give me a right of reply, I will be coming after your editor, in his personal capacity for defamation and damages.
39. Finally, you claim in your article that I sleep with underaged children. Firstly, according to the Sexual Offense Act of South Africa, sixteen year olds are legally sexually consenting adults and I live in South Africa. Be that as it may, where have you ever seen me sleeping with underage girls? You wrote it so you must prove it.
I have let you lie about me for long enough and itβs now time to hold you accountable.
I hope to hear from you soon; failure of which, you will hear from my legal team.
Written by Rutendo Matinyarare, Chairman of ZASM.
