JEAN CHINGWENA

versus

HARARE MUNICIPALITY

HIGH COURT OF ZIMBABWE

MANGOTA J

HARARE, 12 June 2018 and 15 August, 2018

Urgent chamber application

S T Mutema, for the applicant

C Kwaramba, for the respondent

            MANGOTA J: After disposed of this application which was set down through the urgent chamber book on 12 June, 2018 the applicant’s legal practitioners addressed a letter to the High Court Registrar on 14 June, 2018. The letter reads, in part, as follows:

            “The application was dismissed and the reasons were given ex tempore in chambers. We      kindly             request that we be furnished with the reasons on an urgent basis….. We have            instructions to             appeal his Lordship’s decision….”

            I state hereunder the reasons for my decision.

            The application falls in the realms of the remedy of mandament van spolie. The applicant is a resident of the respondent. She, together with other residents, enjoys the right of being furnished with water for domestic and other use by the respondent. She alleges that the respondent disconnected water supply from her property. She says it did so on 7 June, 2018. She states that its conduct was unlawful. She avers that the respondent embarked upon the same conduct twice in the past. She says, on each occasion that it did so, the court has always come to her assistance. It has, according to her, ordered it (the respondent) to reconnect the supply of water to her property [i.e. stand number 108, Rydale Ridge Park, Harare]. She states that the continued disconnection of water supply from her property constitutes her cause of action. She couched her draft order in the following terms: