Judgment No. CCZ 5/15 13
Const. Application No. CCZ 23/14
premiums, without being licensed as an insurance agent under the Regulations.
Conversely, the MIP has also contravened the Regulations by permitting ZIMRA to
represent its nominated members as their insurance agent. Both parties were patently illadvised in embarking on their agency arrangement without regard to the licensing
requirements of the Regulations.
As for TOBAZ itself, it is equally clear that its members have also violated the
peremptory provisions of the Insurance Act by not registering themselves as insurance
brokers or by holding themselves out as brokers without being registered as such. In
either event, their offence is graver in that they have contravened an Act of Parliament as
opposed to purely subordinate legislation.
It is implored on behalf of TOBAZ that the fact that its members have
contravened a law does not debar them from approaching a court for relief in respect of
any alleged violation of fundamental rights, as is expressly affirmed in s 85(2) of the
Constitution, and that the Court is at large to make any order that is just and equitable, in
terms of s 175(6)(b) of the Constitution. While this may be perfectly correct, allowing
TOBAZ to approach this Court is one thing, but allowing it to succeed in this matter is an
altogether different proposition. As I have already stated, ss 35(1) and 88 of the Insurance
Act unequivocally and emphatically criminalise unregistered brokering. What TOBAZ
seeks to enforce on behalf of its members is the right to persist in and continue their
criminal conduct. Thus, by granting the constitutional relief that TOBAZ seeks, the Court