Ms Ritha Marque Mbatha was in December 2021 awarded an
additional damages of US$180 000 by the High Court after she was fired from her
employment for complaining about persistent sexual harassment by her boss.
Her health has been seriously affected by the level of
harassment in 2002 and 2003.
She had sought the awarding of a record US$500 000 in
additional compensation through a default judgment against Mr Zizhou and the
CZI itself as a follow up to her US$40 800 award by the Supreme Court in 2019
after she was unceremoniously dismissed from employment after refusing to yield
to Mr Zizhou’s sexual advances.
The CZI was then given a 30-day ultimatum to pay that
compensation plus costs to Ms Mbatha.
In the latest case, Zizhou will now see his property sold
after failing to pay the judgement debt to Ms Mbatha because the High Court
struck the application to stay the sale off the roll for non compliance with
the rules.
An auction sale of the property held in May 2021 did not
yield good results and Mr Zizhou objected to the sale saying the property was
not properly advertised. The highest bidder was in fact Ms Mbatha herself.
Justice Priscilla Munangati-Manongwa, in her ruling against
Mr Zizhou said his application was defective and incurable at law. If you fail
to comply with the rules your case is regarded as abandoned and is deemed
dismissed.
On his part, Mr Zizhou through his legal counsel did not
even apply for condonation for failure to comply with the rules.
“As a consequence, there is no matter before me. That being
so, there is nothing to determine. In the result, the matter is struck off with
costs,” said Justice Munangati-Manongwa.
Ms Mbatha claimed she suffered pervasive sexual references,
lewd and inappropriate conduct including alleged explicit comments and texts
about her in the hands of Mr Zizhou when she was employed as his personal
assistant.
Mr Zizhou has since been fired from his employment over his
conduct.
In December 2021, Justice Joseph Mafusire granted Ms Mbatha
a default judgment, but reduced the award to US$180 000, or the equivalent in
local currency convertible at the inter-market bank rate at the time of
payment.
To bolster her claim for damages, Ms Mbatha also filed an
affidavit of evidence that she has suffered psychological damage.
Among her pile of papers was a brief medical report which
detailed that as a result of the sexual arassment, Ms Mbatha suffered severe
post-traumatic stress disorder.
Justice Mafusire, in his judgment, noted that no amount of
money seems adequate enough to compensate for her loss, but that the court
should not be seen to be paying lip service to values espoused in the
Constitution on human dignity and integrity, hence compensation should be
tangible.
“In this case, that the sexual harassment happened and must
be compensated for the harm it has caused is the one aspect,” said Justice
Mafusire.
“But there are some other aspects of the case that have to
be taken into account in arriving at the quantum.
“The sexual harassment was persistent. There has never been
an apology.
“One thinks it would have been quite salutary and a measure
of atonement for the injured brain.”
Justice Mafusire noted that at the arbitration of the case,
Mr Zizhou sought to dismiss his reprehensible conduct as mere jokes. Mr Zizhou
was callous and he engineered Ms Mbatha’s dismissal from employment.
In his ruling, the judge also looked at the power balance and
socio-economic dynamics between Ms Mbatha and Mr Zizhou, which he said were
skewed given the fact that the latter was chief executive officer and her boss.
“When litigation commenced, it was intentionally stalled.
It is now almost two decades since the incident happened.
“It is only thanks to her tenacity that the case has
remained alive in the legal system. Undoubtedly, a measure of punitive damages
is warranted.”
According to messages submitted during the application, Mr
Zizhou became exceptionally personal about his feelings and then said he was
bending rules for her to be awarded a pay rise even though she had just
finished probation. Herald
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