HARARE High Court judge Justice Happias Zhou sitting at the Bulawayo High Court on Tuesday dismissed an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court filed by retired Labour Court judge president Selo Nare.
SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
Nare had filed an application challenging a ruling made by a Bulawayo High Court judge ordering him not to preside over a case brought by TM Supermarket managers on the grounds he was an interested party.
The three TM line managers, Itayi Nkomo, Thembinkosi Nyathi and Nicholas Khumbula Tshili had won an arbitration award by an independent arbitrator on October 23 2012 who ordered TM Supermarket to pay them $2 390 each as back pay after the retail chain underpaid them as a sanction for refusing to work on Unity Day in 2009.
The arbitration award was registered by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese upholding that the three managers be paid their dues.
But when TM appealed against the arbitration award at the Labour Court before Nare on January 10 2013, he dismissed the managers’ arbitration award.
This prompted the managers to file an application at the High Court seeking an order compelling Nare not to adjudicate or handle the case on condition that he was an interested party.
They stated that he was supplying the retail chain store with vegetables and therefore cannot discharge an independent ruling.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
The managers even produced the payment vouchers showing that he had supplied the retail chain with vegetables and got paid for the supplies.
The managers’ application was handled by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Maphios Cheda, who barred Nare from adjudicating the case, saying he was an interested party as a TM Supermarket vegetable supplier.
Following Cheda’s ruling TM Supermarket again applied to the High Court for a stay of execution on January 23 2013 and the application was granted by Cheda.
Cheda then in the process upheld Nare’s ruling and blocked the order by Makonese that the managers be paid.
That is when section managers again made an application seeking an order nullifying Cheda’s interim relief to TM, as well as the nullification of an order against them granted by Nare.
They submitted that Nare was biased against them because of the alleged commercial dealings with their employer and had some pecuniary interest in the outcome of the matter.
