Zimbabwean footballer Kudakwashe Mahachi has threatened to sue his ex-wife Maritha Ndlovu for defamation, pain and suffering after she accused him of scalding their four-year-old son with boiling water.
Mahachi has demanded that Ndlovu retracts the interviews she granted the media and apologise to him in writing or else he will sue her for $55 million.
Mahachi and Ndlovu’s son was severely injured when the former allegedly poured boiling hot water all over his body after he had invited the boy to visit him in South Africa.
The minor’s right foot was eventually amputated. He also suffered severe burns on the head and left foot.
Mahachi, through his lawyers Tanaka Law Chambers, wrote and delivered a letter to Maritha, who is with the scalded child at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo. Part of the letter reads:
When the minor child returned to Zimbabwe, the minor child was well and was in Zimbabwe for his routine visits.
When you were advised that the minor was in Zimbabwe you visited the minor in the company of a ‘medical doctor’ who began administering the minor medication without having done a proper check-up on the minor child.
You will recall that you and others only advised me of the condition of the minor child after he had reacted negatively to the medication you and others together with this doctor had been administering.
This portion of the story you have deliberately avoided mentioning to the media.
Our client advises us that the medical procedures that were done on the minor child under your guidance were patently not proper as they happened on our client’s property and not a medical facility.
The medical procedure or the injection administered to the minor was done without having been satisfied on whether or not the minor had to take the said injection.
This concluded on the strength that the environment under which this happened was not appropriate.
Mahachi accused Maritha of trying to destroy his career by granting interviews to the media saying this has affected his performance on the field of play.
The SuperSport winger said he is now living in fear as he is experiencing constant vitriolic attacks on social media platforms.
Mahachi concluded by demanding a retraction and a written apology from Maritha that should be published by the media. Read the letter:
In light of all these, we have strict instructions to demand as we hereby do that immediately do the following – retract all the false information you have supplied to the media outlets about our clients within 24 hours of receiving this letter.
The retraction must be publicised in those platforms you supplied the information every day for the coming 14 days and at least two times a day.
Tender an apology in writing to our client upon receipt of this letter. Ensure that the apology is circulated upon media platforms you used to spew the vile against Kudakwashe Mahachi.
If the above demands are not met within the prescribed timelines above, we have strict instructions to sue you for defamation, pain and suffering and so far, we estimate them to be in the tune of 55 million Zimbabwean dollars without any further notice to yourself and you should comply with the above we advise that our client will still reserve the rights to take any further appropriate action.
Meanwhile, Maritha told B-Metro that she was not afraid of being sued and will fight for justice to be done for her son.