HARARE – The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe has struck off an application by Denallare Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, a company that supplies pre-payment metering technology, to appeal a High Court decision that dismissed its lawsuit against the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) and the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC).
Denallare Technologies had sought to compel the PRAZ to investigate ZETDC for allegedly initiating a tender process to procure new pre-payment metering technology while Denallare Technologies’s contract was still in effect.
The High Court dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that Denallare Technologies did not have the legal standing to bring the case because it had acted as an agent for another company, Electricity Management Services Ltd (EMS), during the tender process.
Denallare Technologies then applied to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal the High Court’s decision.
The Supreme Court dismissed the application on two grounds. The court at first found that the proposed ground of appeal was incomplete and vague, failing to specify how the High Court had erred in its ruling.
Second, the relief sought by Denallare Technologies, which included a request to send the case back to the High Court for a hearing on the merits, was found to be incompetent.
The court reasoned that even if the appeal was successful, the High Court would still need to address the other preliminary points raised by the respondents before considering the merits of the case.
The court also noted that the contract between Denallare Technologies and ZETDC had already expired, and a new contract for the pre-payment metering technology had already been awarded.
Because of this, the court raised the question of whether the appeal had become irrelevant (moot). However, the court ultimately did not need to decide on this point because of its findings on the completeness and competency of the appeal.
The Supreme Court noted that the requirements for valid “grounds of appeal were set out by GARWE JA, as he then was, in Zimbabwe Open University v Ndekwere SC 52/19 at para [38] thus:
“A ground of appeal which attacks findings of fact must, therefore, not only allege that the lower court misdirected itself on the facts but must go further and show how that misdirection came about.
“Merely alleging a misdirection without further substantiation would not be enough as the attack would remain one against a factual finding.
“In other words, in alleging a misdirection on the facts, the ground of appeal must also show in what way those findings of fact are irrational.”
The decision by the Supreme Court means that the High Court’s ruling dismissing Denallare Technologies’s lawsuit will stand. Denallare Technologies will also be required to pay the legal costs of the PRA and ZETDC.
