1. The main issue in this application is whether a special plea filed outside r 119 of the High Court Rules 1971, is a nullity. Secondly, whether condonation for late filing of the special plea is permissible, if so, the stage at which an application for condonation of the late filing of the special plea ought to be made.
2. The chronology of events leading to the filing of this special plea is as follows. The plaintiff filed summons against the defendant on 20 August 2020 after which he filed appearance to defend on 28 August 2020 having been served... More
In this appeal, the Appellant filed a notice of appeal in which the following three grounds of appeal were raised.
(1) The court a quo erred and, misdirected itself in finding that the application for a stay of proceedings before it was res judicata when no such application had ever been made before it.
(2) A fortiori, the court a quo erred and grossly misdirected itself at law by equating a special plea for jurisdiction to an application for a stay of proceeding when one is a defence and the other is an appellation and legal principles applying on the... More
The appellants were convicted of contravening section 136 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23]. Each of them was sentenced to four years imprisonment of which one year was suspended for five years on condition of good behavior. Another one year was suspended on condition that each appellant restituted the complainant in the sum of US$7 600 by 31 February 2010. More
The appellant is employed by the City of Harare (“the city council”) as Deputy Director of Housing and Community Services and was at the time of the alleged commission of the offence the Acting Director of Housing and Community Services when the incumbent was attending a week-long workshop in Kadoma. In June 2021, he was arraigned before the first respondent facing a charge of “criminal abuse of duty as a public officer, in contravention of s 174 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23]” (the Criminal Law Code). The allegations levelled against him are that he irregularly... More
This is an appeal against sentence. The appellant was convicted of culpable homicide as defined in section 49 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act[Cap9:23] by a Harare Regional Court and was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment of which 10 months imprisonment was suspended for 5 years on the usual conditions of future good behaviour. He remained with an effective sentence of 26 months imprisonment. The facts are that the appellant who was employed as a driver at Marase Estate was tasked to supervise a group of women who were collecting firewood in exchange for services they had rendered... More
