LUSAKA – The Court of Appeal has affirmed a High Court decision that a Finance Manager whose two-year fixed-term contract expired without renewal was not unlawfully dismissed.
The manager, employed by Livestock Services Cooperatives Society, claimed her contract was not renewed because she had previously reported her supervisor for alleged sexist remarks. An internal board had investigated the complaint and dismissed it as frivolous.
As her contract approached expiry, some of her responsibilities were reassigned while she was on leave. Upon expiry, she was notified that the contract would not be renewed, despite no such clause being specified in the original agreement.
She later took the matter to the High Court, arguing that the non-renewal amounted to wrongful, unlawful, and unfair dismissal, and even claimed it was a form of redundancy. Both the High Court and a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal dismissed her claims.
In its judgment delivered last month, the appellate court stated: “The record of appeal shows that the Appellant was not dismissed. She worked until her contract period expired.”
The judges found that she did not prove any statutory breach or substantiate the allegation of sexist remarks. They stressed that Zambian law does not compel an employer to renew a fixed-term contract once it ends.
The court described her claims as vague and speculative, adding that she appeared to be “merely fishing and hoped that one of the claims would stick.” She was ordered to pay her former employer’s legal costs.
The case, Musonda v Livestock Services Cooperatives Society (Appeal No. 165/2023), reinforces that the expiry of a fixed-term contract is not a dismissal, and renewal is not guaranteed.
