The applicant, Nimrod Ncube, obtained an arbitral award in his favour on 14 July 2015 from an independent arbitrator, M.C. Sibanda. The award ordered that the 1st respondent (Sunue Enterprises) reinstate the applicant without loss of salary and benefits, or failing which, the parties should negotiate an exit package. If no agreement was reached on the exit package, the matter was to be referred back to the arbitrator for quantification of damages. The 1st respondent failed to comply with the award. The applicant then brought a contempt of court application alleging that the 1st respondent deliberately refused to act in terms of the arbitral award. Prior to this application, the applicant had sought registration of the award, and Justice Mathonsi had warned the applicant about inherent challenges in executing the award in its current form, noting that the applicant had forced the arbitrator to recuse himself before damages could be quantified.
The application for contempt of court was dismissed.
Until an arbitral award has been quantified as specified in the arbitral order itself, it is premature to bring contempt of court proceedings for non-compliance with that award. An arbitral award that is not sounding in money and has not been refined through the quantification process specified in the award cannot ground contempt proceedings. The award holder must take the necessary steps to "breathe life into" an award by having it properly quantified before seeking to enforce it through contempt proceedings.
The court made non-binding observations questioning whether there is any wisdom in a court registering an order which is incapable of being executed upon, noting this was "for another day's debate." The court also referenced the trite principle that a corporate entity can only comply with a court order through its officers and can thus only be guilty of contempt if the officers for whose conduct it can in law be held liable have refused or failed to comply with such order. The court noted approvingly the earlier advice from Mathonsi J that the applicant's only way out of the procedural difficulties he had created might be "to start all over again."
This case is significant in South African and Zimbabwean labour law as it clarifies the procedural requirements for enforcing arbitral awards in labour disputes. It establishes that contempt proceedings cannot be used to enforce an arbitral award that has not been quantified in monetary terms, particularly where the award provides for alternative remedies (reinstatement or damages) and the damages have not yet been quantified. The case also reinforces the principle that employers cannot be compelled to reinstate dismissed employees, and that award holders must take all necessary procedural steps (including quantification of damages) before contempt proceedings can be properly brought. It serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of following through with all procedural steps in the enforcement of arbitral awards.