6
HMA 36-18
HC 263/18
[11]
The dichotomy between Form 29B and Form 29 is a thoroughly weather beaten path:
see Marick Trading [Pvt] Ltd v Old Mutual Life Assurance Company of Zimbabwe Ltd
& Anor2; Zimbabwe Open University v Mazombwe 3 ; Base Minerals Zimbabwe
[Private] Limited & A nor v Chiroswa Minerals [Private] Limited & Ors 4•
[12]
Form 29B accompanies ordinary chamber applications. One of its important features is
that the substantive grounds for the application should be stated on the face of the
application in summary fashion.
On the other hand, Form 29 should accompany
chamber applications that require to be served. The grounds of the application need not
be set out on the face of the application. An important aspect of this Form is that it sets
out a plethora of procedural rights that, among other things, notify the respondent of
the application; his right to oppose, and the consequences of a failure to file opposing
papers timeously. The minimum period or dies induciae given the respondent to file
any opposing papers is ten [10] days, failing which the matter proceeds on an
uncontested basis. But in urgent cases appropriate modifications have to be done to the
Form to cut short the dies induciae.
[13]
In casu it was plain the applicants had used Form 29B. Thus no dies induciae were
given on the face of the application. The first respondent's point was that since the
chamber application was one to be served, it had to be accompanied by Form 29, not
29B, with appropriate modifications. That not having being done, the argument
concluded, the application was not only bad, but it was incurably bad. You cannot put
something on nothing and expect it to stay there. It will collapse: see McFoy v United
Africa Co Ltd'.
[14]
I did not agree with the first respondent. Raising this point was just a mandatory ritual:
see Rufasha v Bindura University ofScience Education & Ors 6 . The point was a 'sterile
dispute' about forms: see Mazombwe, supra. The first respondent's authorities,
pmticularly Marick Trading and Mazombwe above, were inapposite. Where the courts
'2015 [2] ZLR 243 [Hl
3
2009 (1] ZLR 101 [H]
4
HH 559-14
5
[1963]3 AllER 1169 (PC), at p 11721
6
HMA 15-16