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. of such termination. The appellant gave notice of its intention to No. terminate the Judgment SC 31/18 Civil Appeal No. SC 553/13 employment a month before the fixed contract was set to expire. [24] In the Nyamande case (supra), this Court accepted that the common law position that the employer has a right to terminate an employment contract relationship on notice, in circumstances other than dismissal for misconduct, is part of our law. This Court further accepted that all that s 12(4) of the Act does is to regulate the periods of notice applicable, taking into account the duration of the contract of employment. Indeed the respondent made it clear in his submissions before this Court that he was not contesting the appellant’s right to terminate the contract on notice. His contention was simply that, even in this instance, legitimate expectation does apply. [25] The court a quo was therefore wrong in treating as irrelevant the termination of the employment contract on notice. That was in fact the nub of the matter. In the absence of a suggestion that such termination on notice was flawed, the act of terminating the contract on notice had legal consequences and brought the employment relationship to an end. THAT RESPONDENT SUPPLANTED NOT DETERMINED [26] Having reached the conclusion that the appellant lawfully terminated the respondent’s contract of employment on notice, that really should be the end of the matter. However, the parties exerted much effort to the question whether the second requirement under s 12B (3), namely, whether another person was appointed in the stead of the respondent, was proved. For the sake of completeness, I consider it necessary to determine this issue as well. 11