DISTRIBUTED BY VERITAS TRUST Tel: [263] [4] 794478 Fax & Messages [263] [4] 793592 E-mail: veritas@mango.zw Veritas makes every effort to ensure the provision of reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied. Judgment No. SC 41 /18 Civil Appeal No. SC 326/14 Assets of spouses’ means all the assets owned by either spouse at the time of divorce individually and those owned jointly. They include assets acquired by either spouse before the marriage or during the period of separation. (See Gonye v Gonye 2009 (1)) ZLR 232 (S). The 99-year lease is an asset of the spouses. Notwithstanding that the court cannot reallocate or lease the farm it can however take into consideration the value of the benefits which flow from it (into account) and make the necessary adjustments when distributing the other assets of the spouses or directly distribute the value of the spouse’s rights and interests in the farm. I am aware that the other assets of the spouses were distributed through the consent order. It is therefore no-longer possible to take the value of the spouses’ interests and benefits from the leased farm into consideration in the distribution of their assets. It is however still possible for the court a quo to hear evidence on the value of the parties’ rights and interests in the leased farm to enable it to determine their value and order the party who will remain on the farm to pay the party who has to leave the value of his or her share of the benefits, taking into consideration the provisions of s 7 (4) of the Matrimonial Causes Act. The court a quo erred in failing to appreciate that although the granting of the lease was in the domain of the executive, the lease had value attached to it which the courts are entitled to distribute between the spouses. The issue of distribution of the value attached to the 99-year lease was before the court a quo which did not take it into consideration in distributing the assets of the spouses. It is important to stress that s 7 of the Matrimonial Causes Act requires the courts to take into consideration all the circumstances of the spouses’ case in distributing 11