Zim Now Writer
In a landmark judgment, High Court judge Justice Joseph Mafusire has ordered the Central African Building Society to pay joint applicants, businessman Richard Harold Stuart Beattie and his wife, Penelope Douglas Stone US$142 000 it converted to real time gross settlement during currency reforms in 2019.
The respondents in the matter were Cabs, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube.
Justice Mafusire said that paragraphs 2.5 and 2.6 of the Exchange Control Directive RT120/2018, issued in terms of section 35(1) of the Exchange Control Regulations Statutory Instrument 109 of 1997, changing the currency situation, which Cabs relied on, was not constitutional.
“The conversion of the amount of US$142 000 standing to the credit of the applicants savings account No 1005428905 with the first respondent (Cabs) as at November 28, 2016, violated section 71 of the Constitution,” Justice Mafusire ruled.
The judge argued that the said paragraphs were impeachable in that they, together with the legislative provisions singled out were the basis on which the RBZ and the Finance Ministry improperly interfered with the contractual rights and obligations that existed between the applicants, Beatie and Stone, and Cabs, resulting in the deprivation of the applicants’ right to property in breach of s71(2) of the Constitution.
“Additionally, paras 2.5 and 2.6 of the Exchange Control Directive RT120/2018 are ultra vires s35(1) of the Exchange Control Regulations 1996 in that they purported to arrogate themselves the power which the Exchange Control Regulations did not have and, in the process, purported to invade rights protected under s71(2) of the Constitution,” Justice Mafusire noted in his judgment.
“Paras 2.5 and 2.6 of the Exchange Control Directive RT 120/2018 dated October 4, 2018 are ultra vires s35(1) of the Exchange Control Regulations 1996, SI 109 of 1996 are hereby set aside.”
Justice Mafusire also set aside section 22(1)(b) and (d) and section 22(4)(a) of the Finance (No 2) Act No7 of 2019 which he said violates s71 of the Constitution.
A senior official in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development indicated that they were likely to appeal the ruling.
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