Lawyers have approached the supreme court for leave to appeal a decision by the court in January 2020 which authorised the conversion of US Dollar debt to Zimbabwe Dollar debts using the 1:1 rate, Zimlive reports.
According to the publication, the judgement by Justice Malaba sitting with Justice Matonsi and Justice Mavangira:
constitutes a negation of the law and represents on the part of the court an abdication of constitutional function.
Lawyers representing NR Barber a company that was affected by the ruling said there were limits to what the court could do. In their founding affidavit seeking for leave to appeal for the 20 January ruling, the lawyers said:
The authorities do not by our law have the right to re-cast such realities and to create fiction which they foist upon real people and real transactions. There is a limit beyond which a lawmaker can go, and such limit is inter alia encapsulated in section 117(2)(b) of the constitution.
To the extent that there is a chance that the Supreme Court might have violated the constitution in dealing with this matter, it is in the interests of justice that nine judges of the Constitutional Court pronounce themselves on the validity of the exercise by the Supreme Court of its functions.
More: Zimlive