45 Judgment No. CCZ 2/18 Constitutional Application No. CCZ 86/15 “71 Property Rights (1) … (2) Subject to section 72, every person has the right, in any part of Zimbabwe, to acquire, hold, occupy, use, transfer, hypothecate, lease or dispose of all forms of property, either individually or in association with others. (3) Subject to this section and to section 72, no person may be compulsorily deprived of their property except where the following conditions are satisfied (a) the deprivation is in terms of a law of general application; (b) the deprivation is necessary for any of the following reasons (i) in the interests of defence, public safety, public order, public morality, public health or town and country planning; or (ii) in order to develop or use that or any other property for a purpose beneficial to the community;”. The applicants’ case was that, by operation of the transitional provision, they were made to incur a financial obligation which they were not required to fulfil at the time they terminated the employment relationships with former employees on notice. They argued that, as a result of the retrospective imposition of the obligation to pay the employees whose contracts were terminated the minimum retrenchment package, they were being compulsorily deprived of private property in the form of money in violation of s 71(3) of the Constitution. The retrospective imposition of the financial obligation on employers who terminated employees’ contracts on notice on or after 17 July 2015 to pay the minimum retrenchment package based on length of service has already been held to be constitutional. The question is whether the action constitutes compulsory deprivation of property within the meaning of s 71(3) of the Constitution.