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PRACTICAL LABOUR LAW IN ZIMBABWE WATCHDOG

Supreme Court of Zimbabwe judgments in Tafadzwa Sakarombe N.O v Montana Meats(2020 unanimous) & Sandvik Mining v Mabeza 2:1 split ratio (2018), impliedly repealed or dismembered parts of section 8 of the National Employment Code of Conduct Regulations, Statutory Instrument 15 of 2006( S.I. 15 of 2006) via a hybrid authoritative legal pronouncement that once an employer has conducted any disciplinary proceedings in terms of the National Employment Code of Conduct, Statutory Instrument 15 of 2006 (S.I. 15 of 2006), any appeal against a decision flowing from such code of conduct disciplinary proceedings does not lie to a Labour Officer but the Labour Court in terms of section 92D of the Labour Act. Some legion of old pending labour cases have been afflicted and deflated by these two Supreme Court judgments dealing them a lethal blow or fate of legal natural death or stillbirth. In the absence of any latest Supreme Court judgment to the contrary, the two prevailing judgments remain legally binding and enforceable mindful of the fact that the Supreme Court is the final court of appeal for all civil matters other than constitutional cases, also subject to the trite legal position that the Supreme Court is not bound by its previous judgment. Maybe another test case may be in the offing or pipeline. There is a precedent in some old leading labour law cases where the Supreme Court overturned or reversed its past judgments saying it was an error or wrong e .g Hama v NRZ(1996) reversed Murwisi v United Bottlers(1995), concerning legal principles of reinstatement and damages for job loss. Pro bono/free Legal Opinion by Pan African Commercial and Labour Lawyer Caleb Mucheche LLM Commercial Law(South Africa), LLM Labour Law(Zambia), LLB Hons (Zimbabwe) . Dated 1 October 2021. For any feedback or comments please feel free to contact cmucheche@http://cmlawchambers.co.zw/…/admi…/muchechelaw@gmail.com. Thank you. God bless you.

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