HARARE – The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) suffered a major reversal on Tuesday after its urgent court challenge to the mandatory vaccination of workers was struck off the roll for lack of urgency.
Justice Emilia Muchawa of the Harare High Court said the ZCTU had failed to justify why the case should jump the queue since most of the companies it is suing issued their Covid-19 vaccination directives in July, but only now had the labour movement gone to court.
The judge ruled: “The certificate of urgency on record is silent on the delay in acting from around July 22 when all but one of the respondents issued their staff notices. It does not mention any dates relating to when the cause of action was complete and the need to act therefore arose.
“The applicant alleged in the certificate of urgency that the respondents were conducting themselves as alleged with a view to terminating the unvaccinated employees’ contracts unlawfully. This irreparable prejudice is merely speculative as nothing is alleged about what happened to employees after the deadlines came and passed before the lodging of the application.”
Justice Muchawa said the explanation for the delay should have appeared in the certificate of urgency and the founding affidavit.
“It did not. There is no evidence of the applicant having treated the matter urgently.”
She said ZCTU lawyer Lovemore Madhuku’s concession that they used this route simply because it was the only way to get into court showed that there were other available remedies.
“Every other case was affected equally by the restrictions of filing court processes,” the judge said. “It is my finding that the applicant has not passed the test of justifying that its matter be allowed to jump the queue and be given preferential treatment ahead of other similar matters. In light of this finding, there is no need to proceed to consider the other nine preliminary points. The matter is accordingly struck off the roll of urgent matters with costs.”
The ZCTU is suing several companies including Zimnat Insurance, the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara), TelOne, Windmill Limited, Seed Co Zimbabwe and the Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences after they ordered workers to take the Covid-19 vaccines or risk losing their jobs.
Public service minister Paul Mavhima and Attorney General Prince Machaya were also joined in the court action.
The ZCTU said the actions of the companies violated workers’ constitutional rights.
“There is no law in Zimbabwe making vaccination compulsory. Each person, having fully considered the implications and effects of vaccination, is expected to make a personal decision on whether or not to get vaccinated and where a person decides to get vaccinated, he or she is expected to make a decision relating to the timing of the vaccination,” the ZCTU argued in its application.
