Michael Janga and Amos Tinarwo v Murowa Diamonds (Pvt) Ltd

### Preamble
JUDGMENT NO LC/H/497/14
HELD AT HARARE 1ST APRIL 2014
CASE NO
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IN THE LABOUR COURT OF ZIMBABWE	          JUDGMENT NO LC/H/497/14

HELD AT HARARE 1ST APRIL 2014			CASE NO LC/H/156/12

& 1ST AUGUST 2014

In the matter between:-

MICHAEL JANGA						1st Applicant

And

AMOS TINARWO						2nd Applicant

And

MUROWA DIAMONDS (PVT) LTD			Respondent

Before The Honourable E Makamure, Judge

For Both Applicants		Mr N Gawa (Trade Unionist)

For Respondent			Mr T Sibanda (Legal Practitioner)

MAKAMURE, J:

This is an application for rescission of a judgment which was granted in the absence of the applicants.  The applicants have asserted that they or at least one of them (1st applicant) used to make regular checks with the court officials and were consistently told that no set down date had been granted.  The first applicant was surprised one day when upon insisting that he wanted to know what was happening the he was told that the matter had already been disposed of.  Thus the present application became necessary.

It is trite that in an application of this nature the following considerations must be made:

the explanation of the default must be reasonable

the explanation must be bona fide and not made just to delay the proceedings

The applicant must have a bone fide defence (See Songore v Olivine Industries (Pvt) Ltd 1998 (2) ZLR 210 (SC)).

In the present case the application was made well after the thirty day period required to make such an application had passed (Rule 33).  There has not been an application for the condonation of late application for the rescission.  The application is therefore not properly before the Court.   The Court appreciates that the applicants are self actors;  they may have been misled by their the former trade union and that one of them is of ill health.  However the fact remains that the matter is not properly before the Court.

The application for rescission cannot be considered until the applicants have properly applied for the condonation of late applying for rescission of judgment.

For that reason it is ordered that the application be and is hereby struck off the roll.

Applicants, in person

Chinawa Law Chambers, respondent’s legal practitioners