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CMED property attached over $1,5million labour dispute

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CMED has filed an urgent application at the High Court seeking to stop the Sheriff from selling its vehicles and equipment attached with a view to recover over $1, 5 million owed to its former employees.

CMED has filed an urgent application at the High Court seeking to stop the Sheriff from selling its vehicles and equipment attached with a view to recover over $1, 5 million owed to its former employees.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Over 30 ex-CMED employees, led by Samson Bande, last year registered their arbitral award as a court order and on Friday last week, the Sheriff pounced on CMED premises in Harare and attached all its property which was set to go under the hammer.

The move by the Sheriff followed a default judgment granted by Judge President Justice George Chiweshe in December last year in which he ruled against CMED paving the way for the ex-workers to obtained a writ of execution on March 31 this year.

“Respondent (CMED) be and is hereby ordered to pay the applicants (ex-workers) a sum of $733 403 for the period of May 2012 to June 30, 2016. Respondent be and is hereby ordered to pay applicants pensionable earnings of $16 193 effective July 1, 2016 to date or alternatively to pay an arrear of $717 300 in contribution to the pension scheme of the Public Service Commission plus cost of suit,” read part of the order by Justice Chiweshe.

However, on September 5, 2017, CMED legal manager Nyengeterai Mangidza filed an affidavit at the High Court urging the court to stay execution of his institution’s property.

“This is an urgent application for stay of execution pending the application for condonation and reinstatement filed in the Supreme Court on September 5, 2017,” Mangidza said.

“The applicant (CMED) stands to suffer irreparable harm if execution is permitted to proceed. There is no assurance that it would recover anything from the first to thirtieth respondents who are all scattered across Zimbabwe at the end of a costly and probably protracted period of litigation.”

He added: “The applicant is a commercial institution and the attachment, removal and sale of property would definitely have far reaching repercussions. Indeed, the event will cause harm not only to the applicant but also to its employees and the community at large.”

CMED’s property is currently with the Sheriff and the matter is yet to be set down for hearing.