High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese has dismissed an application for rescission of judgment filed by the National Prosecution Authority (NPA), challenging an order to reinstate fired prosecutor Patrobs Dube.
BY SILAS NKALA
Dube was fired by former Prosecutor-General (PG) Johannes Tomana in November 2011 together with other prosecutors, Leopold Mudisi, Dereck Charamba, Mehluli Tshuma and Musekiwa Mbanje for allegedly leading a strike against poor working conditions.
Following their dismissal, Dube filed a Labour Court application against the Civil Service Commission (CSC) challenging his dismissal and the Labour Court upheld his application, ordering his reinstatement without loss of salary and benefits.
The Labour Court also ruled that in the event that reinstatement was no longer possible, the CSC was supposed to pay him damages.
However, on realising the CSC was reluctant to reinstate or pay him, Dube approached the High Court seeking an order compelling his new bosses the NPA to reinstate him, but both the NPA and CSC did not file responses to his application prompting High Court judge Justice Francis Bere to grant a default judgment ordering his reinstatement.
The judgment prompted NPA to file an application for rescission of Justice Bere’s default judgment, citing technical variances as the reasons for not responding to Dube’s application.
The matter could not be set down until Dube last month approached the courts complaining over the delay.
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In his judgment last week Justice Makonese said the delay by NPA to respond to Dube’s application, resulting in a default judgment being granted in his favour was deliberate and that the current application for rescission of judgment was filed without any genuine desire to obtain the relief sought.
“The application is not bona fide…The manner in which the applicant has handled this case is in a cavalier fashion. It cannot be good that an application for rescission of judgment will be granted in the absence of a full explanation regarding the default judgment. In any event, the applicant has no reasonable prospects of success on the merits of this matter. For the foregoing reasons the application for rescission of judgments has no merit and is hereby dismissed with costs,” Justice Makonese ruled.
