JULIA NDLELA THE Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) has once again lost another High Court case after Justice Webster Chinamora this week ruled in favour of an application by software service provider Twenty Third century Systems (TTCS).
In case HC 1737/22, Chinamora ruled that Zimdef had included a restrictive clause that stifled fair competition. This followed an application by TTCS.
In another case, the Supreme Court this week also quashed an appeal by Zimdef after the High Court stopped a contract awarded to Tano Digital Technologies.
In the past four months, Zimdef has lost five court cases as TTCS fights unfair competition at the state-owned company.
The courts have ruled that Zimdef included clauses in their support tender that intended to exclude other potential bidders.
The clause was flagged as restrictive by companies such as TTCS who are not SAP Value Added Reseller (VAR) Partner. The VAR partnership is an agency relationship that allows partners to sell software on behalf of SAP.
The support tender is for professional services and does not require SAP Software licences.
Zimdef had also approached the Supreme Court under case number SC 153/22 seeking to reverse the interim stay of execution of a contract awarded to Tano.
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Supreme Court judges Justices Chinembiri Bhunu, Hlekani Mwayera and Joseph Musakwa, on Wednesday this week, ruled in favour of TCCS.
The justices struck the matter off the roll with costs.
“Accordingly, l make the following order, the decision of the review panel of the second respondent dated the 22nd February 2022 dismissing the application made by the applicant be and is hereby set aside,” reads the Supreme Court judgement.
“The decision to award the third respondent (Tano) a contract by tender of provision of software services to the first respondent dated December 09, 2021, be and is hereby set aside. The first and third respondents shall bear the costs of this application.”
TTCS implemented the SAP system at Zimdef in 2014 and has subsequently been offering support for the system.
TTCS currently provides SAP support services to other public entities such as the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), government and other entities in and outside the country.
