Judgment No. SC 47/18
Civil Appeal No. SC 695/15
had been merely suspended and that as a consequence one could not predict the outcome of those
proceedings. She also submitted that while the second appellant is not cited in his official capacity,
the substance of the subpoena is that the Managing Director of the first appellant should testify.
Mr Mpofu for the first appellant submitted that the second appellant’s employment was
in fact terminated and made an undertaking to bring before the court the record of proceedings
pending before the High Court relating to the termination. This was also confirmed by Mr Chinake
who appeared for the second respondent. The court proposed to take an adjournment and give
Miss Mahere
time to take instructions concerning the new development and all parties were
amenable to the proposal. After a brief adjournment, Miss Mahere confirmed that she had taken
instructions
and stated that her client insisted that the matter proceed because
it would be
prejudiced if crucial findings of the court a quo were set aside on that basis. The court allowed the
matter to proceed and indicated that the point would be dealt with in this judgment.
After the hearing, this Court was furnished with the record of proceedings in the matter
between the second appellant and the first appellant under case number HC 11003/16. The record
contains
a letter
of termination
of the
second
appellant’s
employment
on
notice
dated
12 October 2016 and the proceedings seek to challenge the letter of termination. In Mhungu v
Mtindi 1986 (2) ZLR 171 (SC) at 173A-B McNally JA said“Tt seems clear from the judgment in which the learned judge a quo granted summary
judgment that he made reference to the papers in case number HC 3406/84. In so doing he
was undoubtedly right. In general the court is always entitled to make reference to its own
records and proceedings and to take note of their contentsHalsbury 4 ed Vol 17 paragraph 102; Boyce NO v Bloem & Ors 1960 (3) SA 855 (T); Shell
Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd v Webb 1981 ZLR 498 (HS) at 503-4 (this case was upset on appeal
but not on this point). The position is a fortiori when the defence involves a reference to
the previous proceedings, as this one does.”
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