Zimbabwe: High Court Blocks Registration of 12-Year-Old U.S.$95,322 Worker's Union Award Over Currency Changes

What the report says

A Zimbabwe High Court has blocked immediate registration of a long-running arbitral award in a dispute involving the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) and The Wattle Company Limited. The award, issued in Mutare in November 2013, concerned a U.S.$95,322 claim. The court said GAPWUZ could not simply seek registration of that figure more than a decade later without first addressing Zimbabwe’s later currency and monetary changes.

According to the report from New Zimbabwe, Justice Samuel Muzenda ruled that the union had not established what amount could lawfully be registered and enforced in 2026. He found that the country’s monetary rules had changed substantially since 2013, including the introduction of Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019 and later measures. The judge said the applicant needed to determine the present value of the debt before returning to court.

Wattle Company had argued that the award was not originally made in U.S. dollars and that the claim could be affected by the post-2013 currency framework. GAPWUZ maintained that those issues should be handled only at the execution stage. The court rejected that approach, saying registration should not produce an order that becomes unclear or difficult to enforce later. The application was struck from the roll with ordinary costs, leaving the award unresolved until the amount to be registered is clarified.