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The mantra that ignorance of the law is no excuse is inarguable. As I celebrate the new Commercial Court, are we engaging the public enough and transparently in the process/es of formulation and implementation of new laws in Zimbabwe, laws whose effects it shall have to inevitably sit over?

Brian Tawanda Manyati

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By Brian Tawanda Manyati
09 May 2022

Hello everyone. May you and I kindly note that the Commercial Crimes court is now a reality in Zimbabwe, after a long wait mulling it over and over from several years back. Talk of a bureaucratic process or red tape which is one more unpalatable thing that must go. In acknowledgement, one online news headline, https://english.news.cn/, read, “Zimbabwe establishes new court to expedite ‘the’ resolution of commercial disputes”.

Now as a form of self action may you and I familiarise selves on the Commercial Crimes court’s functions or the gap it is meant to close. Personally, I welcome this newer division of the High Court of Zimbabwe as noble though way overdue especially in the anti-corruption fight.

Let’s also remember that the company insolvency provisions or judicial management clauses are no longer in the new Companies and Other Legal Entities Act (COBE), as they used to be inside the old companies Act. And, still you and I should find out where at those clauses are now deposited, and if it could be that they now are in a revised Insolvency Act if any? That aside, here now comes the Commercial Crimes court in Zimbabwe to highly likely among other things tackle company insolvency issues in line with what’s deemed to be best practice internationally.

In actual fact, it is already announced on public broadcast news that the Commercial Crimes court shall among other things handle company insolvency or business rescue matters. Therefore, it will be good for members of the general public to try and understand the impact of this move on outstanding judicial management/company liquidation cases in Zimbabwe, including those dealt with through the State Indebted and Insolvent Companies Act. In the UK they call that department of the Commercial Crimes court the chancery division according to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-and-property-courts-rolls-building-cause-list/business-and-property-courts-of-england-and-wales-cause-list#insolvency–companies-court-list-chancery-division

Along the lines of a relentless search for best practice in dealing with private and public corruption cases, white collar crimes and corporate insolvency, in a community conversation thread aimed at fighting the ignorance of the law in pursuit of public awareness by FoSMM, I wrote the following lines last year 2021:

[2021/12/26, 10:33] briantawandamanyati at African Development Associates: On 51

The allegation made by the first respondent (President Mnangagwa) in his opposition affidavit is unfounded as it is very clear from the ConCourt application of Prof. Mupasiri that it is not only about the Reconstruction Act applying to SMM. Post 2017 it has applied to Air Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd and Hwange Colliery Company Ltd.

Basically, it has violated another standing law namely the old Companies Act Chapter 24:03 in the case of SMM and
It has violated the new Companies and Other Business Entities Act in the case of SMMZ (Pvt) Ltd, Air Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd and Hwange Colliery Company Ltd from 2018. There were sections of the old Companies Act Chapter 24:03 that have not seen the light of the day in the new Companies and Other Business Entities Act, areas such as those on judicial management which now has been placed under Insolvency Act/Law and given a fresh term/name which is Corporate Rescue. All these changeovers of laws under the circumstances need conservativeness as the public will wake up being told ignorance of the law is no excuse but they were never a part of the laws changeover processes or it were not made clear for public awareness sake in public outreach campaigns at bill stage over what and what specific changes are coming. In my view the mere mention of Corporate Rescue would have attracted a huge public debate and public policy debate.

It is also worthy, for the purposes of keeping you and me updated and continuously learning to attach my conversation with an expert in the legal fraternity on the insolvency or corporate rescue law in Zimbabwe as unaltered below:

“Indeed thank you. May you let me know whether the Recon Act can co-exist with Insolvency or Corporate Rescue Acts.

Regards,
Brian
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On Sun, 24 Oct 2021, 06:20 Fidelis Manyuchi, [email protected] wrote:
Dear Brian,

Thank you for your email. You are most certainly kind.

  1. Judicial management is no longer part of our law since June 2018. We are now in the Corporate Rescue Era. So any distressed company that can be rescued and has no government funding..or has government funding but the Minister hasn’t invoked the Reconstruction Act, can be placed under Corporate Rescue. The Insolvency Act is followed here.
  2. Reconstruction as you correctly pointed out is done in accordance with Reconstruction of State Indebted and Insolvent Companies Act. I am currently out of the country, I don’t have access to the system that allows me to track any changes to this Act. If no change has been done, this Act is only invoked if the distressed company owes the state and the state has an interest in its recovery.

Please note this is not legal advice.

Kind regards

Fidelis Manyuchi

Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Distinction (Wits);

LLM (Corporate & Commercial Law) (Wits).

Senior Associate

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From: Brian Manyati [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 24 October 2021 05:21
To: [email protected]
Subject: Reconstruction vs Corporate Rescue and Judicial Management

Dear Fidelis

I hope this email finds you well. Kindly I were impressed by your recent news article on corporate rescue vs judicial management. May you further elaborate on reconstruction (per the Reconstruction of State Indebted and Insolvent Companies Act) vs each of corporate rescue and judicial management.

Regards,

Brian

+263772815211″

Brian Tawanda Manyati (BTM) is a Chartered Governor and Accounting Technician. A board member of FoSMM responsible for information and publicity since 2021 and a subscribed member of conversations to community (C2C) since 2020.

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