The court considered an application to set aside the National Water Authority Regulations and tariffs on the ground that they were ultra vires and violated the applicants’ rights. 

The applicants’ business operations involved sugar-cane growing and sugar processing. They concluded two agreements with the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA), which related to the supply of water. It was a term of the agreement that the parties would, together, review charges for raw water, and should they fail to agree, the respondent would fix the prices.  Subsequently, ZINWA addressed a letter advising the applicants of their intention to review the charges. The respondent unilaterally increased the tariffs and failed to notify the applicants. The respondent argued that in terms of the ZINWA Act, she had the authority to impose tariffs for water charges and that the regulations did not violate the applicants’ rights. 

The court considered whether the respondent had acted lawfully in imposing the water tariffs. It found that the government reviewed the water charges, and not ZINWA which was lawfully established to review the tariffs in as far as the applicant was concerned.  

The court found that the respondent could not unilaterally increase water tariffs, unless ZINWA had made application to it to justify the increase. In this case, the respondent failed to notify the applicants, nor did she give them an opportunity to respond. The court concluded that the respondent acted ultra vires by increasing the tariffs and her actions were unlawful. Accordingly, the application was upheld

The court considered an appeal against the High Court’s decision not to interdict arbitration proceedings. 

The facts leading to the appeal were that a joint venture was entered into by the appellant and two mining companies. A dispute subsequently arose which the appellant claimed rendered the contract void ab initio. The first respondent sought a declaration that the contract was valid and soon after, referred the dispute to arbitration. However, the parties failed to agree on an arbitrator and one was appointed by an arbitral institution. Although the appellant boycotted a pre-arbitration meeting, the arbitrator proceeded, identified preliminary issues, and ordered the parties to file submissions. This prompted the appellant to file an urgent application to prevent the arbitration proceedings. The High Court’s refusal grant the interdict is what the appellant appealed against.

Before considering the appeal, the court observed that it was strange that the there was no nexus between the relief sought in the court below and that sought on appeal. The court went on to point out that the appellant refused to correct an error in its citation of the respondent in the proceedings but instead sought to hold out the matter as undefended. This was an abuse of court process. On this basis alone the proceedings could not be sustained.

Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed. The court held that the wrong citation was compounded by the appellant’s refusal to rectify the error and made an order for exemplary costs.