Zimbabwe minister sued

The allegations stem from Mr Moyo's work in Nairobi

Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathon Moyo is being taken to court by the US Ford Foundation in Nairobi, for allegedly embezzling more than $100,000 while he worked for them in the 1990s.

Mr Moyo has denied the allegations.

Moyo: Ford say they want their money back

Court papers filed by the Ford Foundation's lawyers in Nairobi accuse Mr Moyo of wrongfully misappropriating $108,000 that it had granted to an east African research institute, Sereat.

Mr Moyo, who was a programme officer at the Ford Foundation in Kenya from 1993 to 1997, is alleged to have secretly transferred the money into a South African based trust called Talunoza, named after the first two letters of his four children.

Part of the money was allegedly used to buy a house in Johannesburg, which they say Mr Moyo stays in when he visits South Africa

Angry denial

The US-based foundation's court action claims Mr Moyo took a secret commission from Ford funds given to Sereat, which he was supposed to be monitoring.

Ford is demanding he repay them the money, with interest.

The case was brought to court in Nairobi on 22 January. Mr Moyo was summoned on 9 February and has to give his defence by 5 April.

Still in Zimbabwe, the minister has responded angrily to the charges - especially now they have reached the press. The Independent newspaper in Harare ran the allegations at length on Friday.

Mr Moyo told the BBC he would be taking the weekly newspaper to court for libel. He also said he was suing the Ford Foundation, for breach of contract, relating to a project he authored, called "Hopes on the Horizon".

He said his case against them would reveal what they got up to in Africa.

He said the two organisations were trying to discredit him, and that he would gain financially from the case.

"They are making political capital, I will make money," he said.