Can a civil partnership be dissolved by a Court in Zimbabwe?

The simple answer is yes! A civil partnership can be dissolved by a court in Zimbabwe. It is important to note that in dissolving a civil partnership neither of the parties that is the man or the woman are deemed to be guilty of bigamy, which is a crime contrary to section 104 of the Criminal Law Code, if any one of them was legally married to someone else.

In the event that the parties had acquired assets before the partnership, during the subsistence of the partnership and even acquired property during separation of the parties, the court will have regard to section 7 of the Matrimonial Causes Act [Chapter 5:13] (‘the Act’) which is the focal piece of legislation in Zimbabwe which regulates the apportionment, division and distribution of ‘matrimonial assets’.

Thus, where one of the parties in a civil partnership in Zimbabwe is legally married to some else (‘the spouse of the civil partner’), the court in applying the provisions of section 7 to 11 of the Act with regards to the division, apportionment or distribution of the assets of the civil partnership pay attention to the rights and interests of the spouse of the civil partner and ensure that its order does not extend to any assets which are provide to the satisfaction of the court, to be assets properly belonging to the spouse of the civil partner.