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 35/18 Civil Appeal No. SC 519/17 School Fees Allowance Even though the actual legal basis of the school fees allowance claimed by the respondent is unclear, it is common cause that it was in existence and was being paid at some stage. This seems to be relatively clear from an internal memorandum, dated 27 April 2009, from the Managing Director of the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), a subsidiary of the appellant, to all members of its staff. Amongst other things dealt with in the memorandum, the school fees allowance was suspended with immediate effect, ostensibly “to support government efforts towards the economic recovery programme [and] … need for sacrifice on our part to bring back the economy to reasonable levels”. As noted earlier, this allowance had been mutually stayed in 2007 to 2008. The respondent’s position is that it was then reintroduced through the 2009 CBA until it was unilaterally and unlawfully withdrawn on 27 April 2009. Mr Magwaliba also alluded to an arbitral award rendered in 2011 by a different arbitrator, setting aside the decision taken in April 2009 to reduce certain benefits, which were then reinstated by the appellant through an internal memorandum dated 2 December 2011. However, these documents and related events are of no assistance to the respondent’s case inasmuch as they pertain to managers in grade D5 only and to other contractual allowances not presently in dispute. More importantly, as I have already found, there is no agreement in existence showing a 7