Former Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president
Farai Zizhou has once again petitioned the Supreme Court seeking permission to
challenge a judgement that ordered him to pay $500 000 to a victim of sexual
abuse.
Zizhou was on October 30, 2018 ordered by the Supreme Court
to compensate Rita Marque-Mbatha, the Women’s Comfort Corner Foundation director,
for unlawfully firing her from CZI.
Zizhou was, in terms of the law, supposed to file his plea
against the claim within 10 days of the Supreme Court order, but failed to do
so.
According to court papers Marque-Mbatha was unfairly
dismissed from employment by Zizhou sometime in June 2013 after she refused to
give in to his sexual advances.
Marque-Mbatha, who is also a board member of the
International Alliance of Women, took CZI and Zizhou to the Labour Court, but
the matter was dismissed by the High Court.
She then appealed to the Supreme Court where three judges —
Justices Elizabeth Gwaunza, Bharat Patel and Vernanda Ziyambi — ruled in her
favour and upheld her appeal and ordered Zizhou and CZI to pay her $500 000 in
compensation.
But in his current application Zizhou said he filed his
plea on November 14, 2018 and that the delay in filing the plea was neither
“wilful nor inordinate”.
“An application for condonation was filed in the High Court
under HC11543/18. However, it was noted later that this was not the correct
procedure to follow as the time in which to file was stipulated in an order of
this court.
“Therefore, only this court has the power to grant
condonation,” he said through his lawyer Roselyn Mhlanga.
The matter is pending. Standard
0 comments:
Post a Comment