Judgment No. CCZ 8/15 2
Civil Application No. CCZ 62/15
[1]
On 23 July, 2015, the applicants filed a notice of appeal to the Constitutional Court
against a judgment of the Supreme Court dismissing their appeal. This is an application
for the appeal to be set down for hearing on an urgent basis.
[2]
At the onset of the hearing of the application, I invited Mr Madhuku to address me on:
whether the applicants have a right of appeal, in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe,
from a judgment of the Supreme Court; and whether or not the applicants had made out a
case on the papers, for an urgent hearing of the matter.
[3]
Mr Madhuku submitted that the applicants derive their right of appeal from s 167(5)(b) as
read with s 169 (1) of the Constitution. The provisions are set out hereunder. Great
emphasis was placed on the underlined words.
“167 Jurisdiction of Constitutional Court
(1) –(4)….
(5) Rules of the Constitutional Court must allow a person, when it is in the interests of
justice and with or without leave of the Constitutional Court—
(a) to bring a constitutional matter directly to the Constitutional Court;
(b) to appeal directly to the Constitutional Court from any other court;
(c) to appear as a friend of the court.
169 Jurisdiction of Supreme Court
(1) The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal for Zimbabwe, except in matters over
which the Constitutional Court has jurisdiction”.
[4]
As I understand it, the submission was that sub s (5) (b) grants a right of appeal to the
applicants in a case such as this where the alleged violation, by the Supreme Court, of the