LOUDMOUTH former singer Saboi Imboela has narrowly avoided jail time after receiving a fine of K25,000 for defaming State House chief communications specialist Clayson Hamasaka.
The singer cum-politician now has may now resume her music career and organize gigs, empty her purse and making distress calls to her friends in UKA to help her raise a K25,000 by Monday next week, which she was ordered to pay to the State as penalty.
Failure to raise the money by November 25, Saboi will be jailed for nine months simple imprisonment.
Saboi was charged with two counts of libel before the Lusaka Magistrates Court.
Her legal trouble was self-triggered in September, 2022, when she made postings on her facebook account accusing Hamasaka of engaging in corruption, when she made claims that his farm was being developed by the Chinese.
She also alleged that Hamasaka was promiscuous and never spared any living creature in a skirt seeking employment in the current administration, and as a result his marriage was on rocks as he was at the verge of being divorced by his wife.
In her defense the singer without her facebook followers to cheer her on, failed to prove that Hamasaka was a cassanova, but chose to ride on their friendship as reasons for denting his image.
She claimed that she engaged in a squabble online with a different Hamasaka and not the one employed at State house and promised to round up five Hamasakas, as proof that she did not defame the communications specialist, a self assigned task she failed to accomplish.
In her findings principal resident magistrate Sylvia Munyinya said the statements were defamatory and had the potential to cause the person they referred to be held in contempt or ridicule by damaging their reputation.
“In our society a person who is immoral or corrupt, is percieved with a view of contempt by lowering their reputation or exposing them to ridicule or contempt,” she said.
“The statements are of a nature that could reasonably harm a person’s reputation ….I find the statements to be defamatory matter.”
She said there’s no evidence that the publications were made in public benefit or were privileged .
“I find that there was unlawful publication by the accused,”magistrate Munyinya said.
She noted that Saboi out of the four postings denied posting two offending posts but admitted posting the other two, hence as the owner of the page she is supposed to exercise control of her content and what other admins post on her page.
The magistrate said in libel it is possible to be sued even if the complainant is not directly mentioned as long as the allegations mentioned are aligned with the known individual.
She also established that the Hamasaka being referred whom Saboi likened to a ghost, is Clayson Hamasaka.
“I find that the defamatory matter was in reference to Clayson Hamasaka,” she shaid.
Magistrate Munyinya found that Saboi had the intent to defame Hamasaka, and no evidence of his corruption and immorality were proved in her defense.
She found the singer guilty of libel and convicted her.
In mitigation Saboi’s lawyer Sakwiba Sikota said his client was a first offender, who is a mother and in addition is looking after three dependents and a 72- year old mother.
“She helps women in chimbokaila and men in Mwembeshi prison in order to help them reform. She is contacted by victim support units with regard to molested children and battered women, she provides counseling to them and helps to link them up with organizations that help them with rehabilitation,”Sikota submitted.
“The now convict has a school in Shantumbu (The Saboi Imboela Trust school) it is a community school in a 10 kilometer radius. If it closes down, hundreds of children will walk over 10 kilometers to walk to some alternative school.
At the school offers adult literacy to the community.”
Sikota said Saboi did not just wake up one to randomly write hateful posts as she was responding to provocative statements on Koswe and watchdog, hence the court should confide it a mitigating factor.
“She had been attacked for a period of four months by Koswe and watchdog. Prisons are overcrowded unless someone is a danger to the public they should not be put in overcrowded prisons consider alternative sentences other than a custodial sentence,”he submitted.
He asked the court to consider imposing a fine
“She regrets having published that material and has taken down all the postings. She will be in the news headlines tomorrow and it will be clear to everybody that the accusations were not justified,” Sikota submitted.
“The judgment has restored Hamasaka’s reputation by giving him restorative justice.”
He requested that the Court reconciles the two by providing counseling to the parties who were once buddies to get back in the space they were in before.
“We pray that you exercise maximum leniency. She (Saboi)promises that this is the last time you will see her in the courts over a similar matter,”said Sikota.
In her sentence magistrate Munyinya said Saboi deserves leniency as a first offender and fined her 25, 000 in each of the two counts which she will donate to the treasury by November 25 failure to which she will go in for nine months.
She ordered that the fines are non cumulative which means that Saboi will only pay a K25,000 and not a K50, 000.
The singer who was humbled with the conviction showed mixed emotions, as she was all smiles and expressed pensiveness at some point.
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba November 19, 2024.
