LINCOLN MAJOGO

Introduction Within a fortnight, the High Court of Zimbabwe has handed 2 dissenting judgments on a similar issue. One which I shall refer to as the Mafusire judgment (Judgment handed down by Justice Mafusire in Stone Beattie v CABS & Ors HH 118-23) and another, which I shall refer to as the Chinamora judgment (Judgment handed down by Justice Chinamora in Duncan Hugh Cocksedge v CABS & Ors HH 152-23) . Both judgments relate to the right to withdraw United States dollar deposits held in bank accounts before 22 February 2019 in that currency. The Applicants in both matters insist on withdrawing their money in United States dollars(USD), the currency in which they deposited their funds, and not in local currency at the rate of one as to one with the Zimbabwean dollar. The chief grievance of the Applicants stems from various laws that were passed by the Government of Zimbabwe from the period 2015-2019 whose effects were to convert USD balances held in banks before 22 Februar...

Introduction Penelope Douglas Stone and Richard Harold Stuart Beattie (Hereinafter referred to as Stone Beattie) were two of the many Zimbabweans who were affected by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Directives (R)T 120/18 , later supported by SI 33 of 2019 and Finance Act 2 of 2019 whose effect was to convert United States dollar balances held in bank accounts to Zimbabwean dollars depending on the source of funds. The RBZ and the Ministry of Finance passed a number of laws in which all assets and liabilities which were expressed in United States dollars (Referred to as the USD) before 22 February 2019 were converted to local currency at the rate of one as to one with the Zimbabwean dollar. The implication of the new policy and law was that if you had 1(one) United States dollar in your account, that became equivalent to 1(one) Zimbabwean dollar.  RBZ claimed that it has an international facility to ensure that the value remained one-as-to-one with the United States dollar. ...

  Introduction Joint ownership of matrimonial property has numerous implications in law. For instance, a couple may register matrimonial property as co-owners, and later on, one party decides to alienate their share forcing the rest of the family to cohabit with strangers in the same house. What does the law say regarding such circumstances where one party acts recklessly in disposing of their share in a matrimonial property without the consent of the other to the detriment of the family? This piece unpacks the law on the subject matter beforehand. Brief facts of the matter In the Ishemunyoro case, the Appellant, a woman who worked for the government was offered a rent-to-buy option with respect to certain immovable property in Sinoia Township. For convenience, we shall refer to this as the property. She would pay the purchase price through monthly salary deductions from her employer ie the Government. The property was then registered in the names of the Appellant and her hu...

  The ongoing social media hysteria surrounding the Dominican Convent drug saga has set social media ablaze with mixed emotions and reactions from the public. For context, Dominican Convent High School, an elite school in Harare recently expelled 8 female students who were found guilty of contravening the school’s drug policy during an Upper Six leadership camp held in Nyanga this month. Some have also used this incident to publicly demand the government to legalize the use of recreational drugs. What is clear, however, is that stakeholders have been playing the blame game with various analysts blaming the government for ineffective policies in curbing rampant drug abuse, while others blame parents for not doing as much in protecting children from drug and substance abuse.  We must appreciate that the drug and substance predicament is complex. Equally this incident should have been the moral authority to leverage a multi-sectoral approach that brings various players t...

                                                                             Introduction   The Labour Amendment Bill [HB 14-21] (hereinafter referred to as the Bill] has raised employees’ hopes around the country . Several positive changes come with it. It is the changes regarding maternity leave that are the subject of today’s piece. The Bill undoubtedly makes life easier for female employees by scrapping off preconditions to claiming paid maternity leave. These changes include the ability to claim paid maternity leave more than three (3) times from an employer. Also, female employees will no longer be required to have worked for at least one year to claim paid maternity leave. A second thoughtful look at the Bill however suggests that the proposed...

 By Lincoln Majogo The discovery of covid-19 vaccines has brought a sigh of relief to governments all over the world as this boosts attempts to contain the scourge of the virus. The menacing virus which has ravaged the entire globe since 2019 remains formidable with variants reneging deadlier than earlier strains. Whilst I have and still advocate for people to be vaccinated, l endorse the approach that seeks the informed consent of the employee first before taking drastic measures. This is a personal view premised on the scientific studies that I have carried out concerning the efficacy of vaccines against viruses and variants. I encourage everyone to get vaccinated but again this should be in a manner consistent with constitutionalism. Recently, social media in Zimbabwe has been flooded with circulars from corporate giants such as TELONE giving ultimatums to their workers to get vaccinated by certain deadlines or face the blade of allowance deductions. The immediate questi...

  by Lincoln Majogo   The Companies and other Business Entities Act passed in 2020 replaced the Companies Act which had been in force since 1951. Amongst a plethora of revolutionary changes to the manner in which business is carried out in Zimbabwe was legislative rehabilitation of common law principles. The widely celebrated Salomon case solidified the principle of corporate personality which perceives a company as a fictitious person capable of incurring rights and obligations as a natural person. The lottery ticket for this principle lay inside limited liability for directors in that their personal assets cannot be attached when suing a company since the company is a person at law capable of suing and being sued in its own capacity independent of its employees. Whilst the wisdom of the Salomon case is something one cannot ignore, this precedent let loose an army of stray directors who could simply defraud innocent third parties in the name of the company and walk awa...