THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has been ordered to pay a former employee US$47 850 in damages for sacking her when she refused to submit to the sexual demands of her boss.
Ms Rita Mbatha was working for CZI when then chief
executive Farai Zizhou made inappropriate comments and sexual advances between
2002 and 2003. When she rebuffed his advances, CZI fired Ms Mbatha.
She successfully sued Zizhou at the High Court five years
ago and his house in Harare’s Hatfield suburb was auctioned under a court order
to satisfy the damages he had to pay Ms Mbatha.
In December 2021, she was awarded an additional US$180 000
in damages by the same court after she was fired from her employment for
complaining about persistent sexual harassment by her boss.
Last week, the CZI unsuccessfully contested the
registration of Ms Mbatha’s award following a Supreme Court order of November
2019. Justice Gladys Mhuri ordered CZI to pay Ms Mbatha nearly US$47 850 plus
interest at the prescribed rate, finding that she was unfairly sacked for
reporting her boss for his improper conduct.
The judge also noted that the Supreme Court order under SC
119/19, made it clear what the CZI had to pay. The High Court under case number
HC 4380/20 had ruled in favour of CZI allowing it to pay Ms Mbatha Z$41 161,30
instead of US$41 161,30.
But the Supreme Court under Civil Appeal SC 437/22 made an
order in case number SC 119/19, which is still in force and has not been
satisfied. Justice Mhuri ruled that CZI could not claim it was paying the
balance in local currency.
The judge agreed with Ms Mbatha that if CZI felt the order
was not clear, it should have sought clarification from the Supreme Court.
“In the result, it is my finding that the opposition to
this application was unmerited,” said Justice Mhuri. “The application for
registration of the Supreme Court Order under SC 119/19 is hereby granted. The
Supreme Court Order of 25 November 2019 under SC 119/19 is hereby registered as
a judgment of this court.
“Respondent (CZI) is hereby ordered to pay the applicant
(Mbatha) the sum of US$47 850,01 inclusive of interest calculated at the
prescribed rate.”
In his December 21 judgment, Justice Joseph Mafusire noted
that no amount of money seemed adequate 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.
Justice Mafusire noted that at the arbitration of the case,
Mr Zizhou sought to dismiss his reprehensible conduct as mere jokes.
He said Mr Zizhou was callous and 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 he was chief executive officer and her
boss.
According to messages submitted during the application, Mr
Zizhou became exceptionally personal about his feelings and at some point said
he was bending rules for her to be awarded a pay rise even though she had just
finished probation.
Mr Zizhou settled the damages he had to pay using his house
in Hatfield, which was auctioned in terms of the court order. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment