The magistrate, William Cutler, found Simbarashe Makunike, deputy editor of theFinancial Gazette and the author of the stories, guilty of defamation with actual intent.
“The accused knew very well that he had no evidence … that it was untrue,” Mr Cutler said.Mr Mugabe has two children with Ms Marafu. But he has denied that he formalised the relationship in 1992 by marrying only months after the death of his Ghanaian wife, Sally.Makunike said he got the story from Elleck Mashingaidze, director-general of Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation, to whom he claimed he was related.Mr Mashingaidze denied this, however, and the magistrate said that the CIO chief gave the impression “of sincerity and truthfulness”, while the reporter appeared to be “patently lying”.He added: “You appeared anti-establishment. Your attitude is that denials by anyone in authority must be dismissed. But why should denials be treated with the attitude, ‘What else can you expect?’ It does not appear fair at all.”He said that to imply that a High Court judge was a liar was “extremely serious”, while branding a cabinet minister as untruthful could discourage donor agencies and foreign governments from having any dealings with Zimbabwe.The magistrate said that the newspaper’s editor, Trevor Ncube, had been reckless in publishing the stories, and its publisher, Elias Rusike, was found guilty as a representative of the company.

Makunike, Ncube and Rusike had pleaded not guilty to the criminal defamation charges, brought by a High Court Judge, Paddington Garwe, and the Housing Minister, Enos Chikowore, over reports published in April alleging the two had witnessed the secret Mugabe remarriage.Mr Cutler said that he would pass sentence on 17 August, after considering submissionsfrom the defence and prosecution. The state prosecutor, Bambi Hammond, urged the court to fine the three heavily, because “there was malice on their part”. He rejected the defence’s pleas for Z$500 (pounds 36) fines or a cautionary sentence against Rusike as paltry penalties, which trivialised the case.Defamation is usually a civil matter in which the newspaper is sued for damages by the offended party, while criminal defamation is a rarely used charge, implying a much more serious offence.. PAUL WALLACE

Economics Editor
The Governor of the Bank of England appears to be toning down his demand for higher interest rates, it emerged last night.While Eddie George continued to press for a rise in rates in his meeting with the Chancellor on 5 July, some City analysts detected a distinct cooling off in the stridency with which he pressed for a hike in base rates.His relaxation was detected in the minutes of the latest meeting between the two, which were released yesterday, a day in which a CBI survey revealed a sharp reduction in business optimism across most regions in the country.According to Geoffrey Dicks, UK economist at NatWest Markets, the latest minutes were “another instalment in the Governor’s climbdown”, marking “a distinct softening” in his approach.Whereas in May Mr George said higher rates were called for immediately, now the demand had become less immediate – “before very long” according to the minutes. “The urgency of monetary tightening that the Governor saw in May is a thing of the past,” Mr Dicks said.The minutes revealed that Mr George continued to be concerned about cost and input price pressures.

These “remained uncomfortably strong”, with input prices up by 10 per cent on a year ago. With unit labour costs edging upwards, “the incentive to raise output prices clearly remained strong”. Monetary growth, too, was picking up considerably, with narrow money growing at an annualised rate of 7.5 per cent in the three months to June and broad money continuing its “gradual acceleration since last autumn”, according to the minutes.On the other hand, the Governor conceded that “the real economy might be a little softer than would have been supposed two or three months ago. But it was too soon to be sure if this softer tone would persist. If it did then that would clearly ease concerns about inflation further ahead”. The conclusion remained that “some further tightening of policy would be needed before very long to be reasonably confident of getting underlying inflation back below 2.5 per cent in 1997″.This advice was rejected by Kenneth Clarke who said “if anything, the balance of the data over the previous month had reinforced the view that interest rates should not be changed”.