Hilary Muza 
IN this week’s piece, I am expanding on the legal principles applied in the case of Mbatha v Zizhou & Ors HH 675/21. In that case, a plaintiff sought damages for physical and psychological injury caused by sexual harassment in the workplace. 
To begin with, what are damages anyway? Damages in law refer to a method of compensation for a wrongful act. Damages are calculated at the amount which should be paid to the claimant to put them in the same position that it would have been but for the wrongful act.
There are damages for pecuniary loss, which can be quantified in monetary terms.
These include hospital bills, car repair costs and so on. The damages that apply to sexual harassment cases in the workplace are called non-pecuniary damages. These damages are not economic in nature, yet still affect a person’s lifestyle and enjoyment of life. It is to this type of damages that a court will look in cases involving sexual harassment.
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