Online Reporter
Fidelis Munyoro
Chief Court Reporter
The High Court has ordered former University of Zimbabwe employee Vengai Mugabe to return a Toyota Land Cruiser to the university within 48 hours and repay US$3,500 received through court proceedings later declared a nullity by the Constitutional Court.
Handing down an ex-tempore judgment in Harare, Justice Joel Mambara, ruled that Mugabe could not lawfully retain either the vehicle or the money because both were obtained through Labour Court and Supreme Court processes that the Constitutional Court subsequently set aside in their entirety.
“The respondent’s current possession is not supported by lawful cause because the process by which possession was obtained was nullified,” the judge said.
Justice Mambara ordered Mugabe to deliver the Toyota Land Cruiser, registration number AEX 3972, within 48 hours, failing which the Sheriff was authorised to seize the vehicle wherever it is found and return it to the university.
Pending its return, Mugabe was barred from selling, transferring, concealing or otherwise disposing of the vehicle.
The court also ordered him to repay US$3,500, together with interest from January 28, 2026, and to pay the university’s legal costs.
The dispute arose after the UZ sought vindication of the vehicle and recovery of the money, arguing that both had been obtained through execution proceedings founded on Labour Court and Supreme Court decisions that were later nullified by Constitutional Court judgment CCZ 17/25.
Mugabe opposed the application, arguing that the matter remained an employment dispute within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Labour Court.
He maintained that a labour officer’s draft ruling survived the Constitutional Court decision and entitled him to retain possession of the vehicle pending fresh labour proceedings.
Justice Mambara rejected that argument, drawing a distinction between the survival of the labour officer’s draft ruling and the validity of the execution process through which the vehicle was transferred.
“The Constitutional Court did not say that every gain procured via LC/H/317/22, HCH 29/23, and SC 671/23 would remain undisturbed. It said only that the draft ruling itself stood unaffected,” he said.
Relying on authorities including MacFoy v United Africa Co Ltd, the judge held that once the Constitutional Court declared the Labour Court and Supreme Court proceedings a nullity, every legal consequence flowing from those proceedings also fell away.
“It is to restore the parties to the position that prevailed before the Sheriff, acting under a court process later found to be nullity, removed the vehicle from the applicant and handed it to the respondent,” Justice Mambara said.
He further ruled that allowing Mugabe to retain the benefits of the invalidated proceedings would undermine the Constitutional Court’s decision.
“It would mean that the Constitutional Court could set aside the Labour Court and Supreme Court proceedings in their entirety, declare them a nullity, and yet the immediate fruits of those very proceedings would remain with the successful execution creditor. The law does not favour such an incoherent result,” the judge said.
The ruling restores possession of the vehicle to the UZ while leaving the parties free to pursue any surviving labour rights through legally competent proceedings.
