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. 21.2 Further at 192F – G, the court stated:- Judgment No. SC 31/18 Civil Appeal No. SC 553/13 “Quite clearly, the appellants’ case is predicated on the proposition that dismissal means all forms of termination of employment. Put differently, all terminations of employment are dismissals. This proposition is not tenable on the authority of the above cases. The proposition is clearly erroneous.” 21.3 At page 193 D – E, the court also stated that it was satisfied that:“… s 12B of the Act does not deal with the general concept of termination of employment. It concerns itself with termination of employment by way of dismissal in terms of a code of conduct …. It does not concern itself with termination of employment by ways other than dismissal.” 21.4 [22] Finally, at 194 A-B, the court concluded:“The wording of section 12(4) of the Act is so clear that it leaves very little room, if any, for misinterpretation. It governs the time periods that apply when employment is being terminated on notice. It stands to reason that the notice periods do not apply when an employee is dismissed. In instances of dismissal no notice is required. The periods of notice referred to in s 12(4) of the Act can only apply where there is termination of employment in terms of a process involving the giving of notice provided for in a contract of employment.” Clearly therefore, on the basis of decision of this Court in the Nyamande case (supra), the respondent’s contention that s 12B applies to all forms of termination is wrong. The judgment in Nyamande was handed down in July 2015. The respondent appears to have been unaware of its existence as law when his heads of argument were filed in June 2016 – almost a year later. ISSUE OF TERMINATION ON NOTICE – WHETHER IRRELEVANT [23] This was the core issue that fell for determination in the resolution of the dispute between the parties. The essence of s 12(4) of the Act and a termination on notice clause in a fixed term contract is to allow for the termination of a contract before its effluxion by time. In this case, the contract of employment provided for the termination of the contract of employment by either party upon giving the other one month’s notice 10