Supreme Court upholds dismissal of ZIMRA officer fired for emailing pornographic content

The Supreme Court has upheld the dismissal of Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) officer Stanford Sithole, who was fired for distributing pornographic material through his official work email, ending a legal battle that has dragged on for nearly a decade.

In a ruling delivered on October 7, 2025, Justice Alphius Chitakunye said the decision underscored “the critical importance of maintaining professional standards in the workplace,” reaffirming the court’s stance on integrity within public institutions.

Sithole, stationed in Gweru, was dismissed in 2016 after an internal ZIMRA probe revealed he had sent 13 explicit emails from his work account, a clear breach of the authority’s IT policy, which bans misuse of company assets.

A designated agent initially cleared him, citing insufficient evidence, a decision later upheld by the Labour Court, which noted the possibility of hacking.

But the Supreme Court overturned that finding, ruling that the burden was on Sithole to prove his account had been compromised.

“While hacking is difficult, it is not impossible. However, the evidence presented sufficiently pointed to the respondent’s responsibility for the emails in question,” the court said.

ZIMRA’s IT manager, Mazhindu, testified that investigators used secure forensic tools to trace the emails, explaining the system was “difficult to alter or compromise.”

Sithole had argued he was a victim of a management conspiracy over his involvement in a workers’ committee. But the judges dismissed that claim, stating, “Allegations of bias must be backed by convincing evidence, not mere assertions.”

He also suggested the emails could have been sent by others sharing his workstation. The court rejected that, noting ZIMRA’s system required individual credentials for access, which Sithole admitted he had not shared. — _*NewZimbabwe*_