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 32/18 Civil Appeal No. SC 807/16 determination on the benefits payable to the respondent in terms of the supposed retrenchment agreement signed by the parties. No evidence was tendered that the respondent had paid back the amounts that he received. Arbitrator Manase’s award, therefore would have resulted in the respondent being paid essentially the same benefits, twice. Since Arbitrator Manase was not sitting as an appeal court, it was clearly not open to him to do as he purported. More confounding, in my view, is the fact that the parties in this matter agreed to refer the dispute to Arbitrator Manase. This was notwithstanding the common understanding by all that an Arbitrator who enjoys parallel jurisdiction with any other arbitrator can at law, neither set aside nor interfere in any manner with the award of another arbitrator. They also did this in full knowledge of the fact that the first arbitral award was extant, and that the agreement based on it had been fully implemented by the parties to the dispute. The respondent attempts to differentiate between the two arbitral awards as follows: “…. The court a quo did not err because the two awards dealt with separate and distinct causes of action. The Manase award dealt with the lawfulness of the retrenchment while the Bvumbe award dealt with a dispute over claimed contractual benefits and benefits to be included in a retrenchment package….” (my emphasis) 12