{"id":44429,"date":"2021-08-02T20:11:32","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T18:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?p=44429"},"modified":"2021-08-02T19:34:48","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T17:34:48","slug":"high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit","title":{"rendered":"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>By Mary Taruvinga<\/b> – A HARARE woman, Rita Marque-Mbatha has suffered a blow after the High Court trashed her application demanding US$500 000 from her former boss and employer for sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

High Court judge, Justice Tawanda Chitapi ruled her application was invalid.<\/p>\n

Marque-Mbatha, who is now the director of Women\u2019s Comfort Corner Foundation (WCCF), was sexually harassed by her former boss, Farai Bwatikona Zizhou, the ex-chief executive of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI).<\/p>\n

She first filed the lawsuit at the Labour Court accusing Zizhou of terminating her employment after she turned down his sexual advances.<\/p>\n

However, the Labour Court dismissed the application before she made an appeal at the High Court.<\/p>\n

Before then, Marque-Mbatha had won an earlier lawsuit after the Supreme Court ruled Zizhou and the CZI to pay her US$41 000 over the same charges.<\/p>\n

After the Supreme Court ruling, she made a fresh application demanding US$500 000 from Zizhou and CZI for sexual abuse, unfair dismissal, pain, suffering, and post-traumatic stress.<\/p>\n

Marque-Mbatha told the High Court that Zizhou\u2019s actions had negatively impacted her marriage and personal health.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff (Marque-Mbatha) suffered severe psychological and psychiatric trauma which resulted in her experiencing some chronic emotional problem. Further, the sexual harassment tainted her marriage to the extent that her husband has separated with her in disbelief of what had happened to her.\u201d reads part of her summons.<\/p>\n

However, in delivering his ruling, Justice Chitapi noted the application was invalid as she had failed to properly file her papers with the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of the Supreme Court order, the need to enter an appearance to defend by defendants fell away. Therefore, the correct grounds for applying for default judgment should have derived from the defendants\u2019 failure to file their pleas contrary to what the Supreme Court had ordered,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not the default in entering appearance that entitles the plaintiff to seek judgment. That being the case, the plaintiff\u2019s application is not in order. The following order must ensue; it is hereby ordered that the application is struck off the roll.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Mary Taruvinga – A HARARE woman, Rita Marque-Mbatha has suffered a blow after the High Court trashed her application demanding US$500 000 from her former boss and employer for sexual harassment. High Court judge, Justice Tawanda Chitapi ruled her application was invalid. Marque-Mbatha, who is now the director of Women\u2019s Comfort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":44428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35,12,15],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":["post-44429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\nHigh Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Mary Taruvinga - A HARARE woman, Rita Marque-Mbatha has suffered a blow after the High Court trashed her appli ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Mary Taruvinga - A HARARE woman, Rita Marque-Mbatha has suffered a blow after the High Court trashed her appli ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-02T18:11:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"485\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-02T18:11:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit\"},\"wordCount\":359,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zimbabwe\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit\",\"name\":\"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit - zimbabwe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-02T18:11:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"By Mary Taruvinga - A HARARE woman, Rita Marque-Mbatha has suffered a blow after the High Court trashed her appli ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":485,\"caption\":\"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/\",\"name\":\"zimbabwe\",\"description\":\"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit - zimbabwe","description":"By Mary Taruvinga - A HARARE woman, Rita Marque-Mbatha has suffered a blow after the High Court trashed her appli ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit","og_description":"By Mary Taruvinga - A HARARE woman, Rita Marque-Mbatha has suffered a blow after the High Court trashed her appli ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit","og_site_name":"zimbabwe","article_published_time":"2021-08-02T18:11:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":485,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit","datePublished":"2021-08-02T18:11:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit"},"wordCount":359,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Zimbabwe","Zimbabwe"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","policy","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit","name":"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit - zimbabwe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-02T18:11:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"By Mary Taruvinga - A HARARE woman, Rita Marque-Mbatha has suffered a blow after the High Court trashed her appli ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/08\/img-61082c9bb03d0.jpg","width":720,"height":485,"caption":"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-dismisses-harare-womans-us500-000-sexual-abuse-lawsuit#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"High Court Dismisses Harare Woman\u2019s US$500 000 Sexual Abuse Lawsuit"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/","name":"zimbabwe","description":"\u0623\u062e\u0628\u0627\u0631 \u064a\u0648\u0645\u064a\u0629 \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0645\u062f\u0627\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0633\u0627\u0639\u0629","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}