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The employer suspended from duty one of its senior employees pending disciplinary hearings into alleged misconduct. Suspension was initially with full pay, and subsequently without pay effective 5 February 1997. The employment dispute was submitted to arbitration. The tribunal awarded the employee his salary and benefits together with interest from 24 December 1996. The employer sought to have the award set aside on the basis that the arbitrator had made a reviewable factual error in calculating the back­pay, and that error, under Zimbabwe's Arbitration Act 1996, Article 34 (MAL, Article 34), rendered the award contrary to public policy.

The court considered that an award which was contrary to public policy would be one that would undermine the integrity of the system of international arbitration put in place by the model law and that this would include cases of fraud, corruption, bribery and serious procedural irregularities. The court held that, as in this case it was not suggested that any moral turpitude attached to the arbitrator's conduct, the award could not be said to be in conflict with public policy (MAL, Article 34). It found that the error was clearly one of computation for which the model law makes adequate provision; a party may request the tribunal to correct such errors and, if necessary, the time limits for making such a request may be extended (MAL, Article 33).

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