Transnational (Pvt) Ltd is a logistics company which owns a sizable fleet of delivery trucks and vans used for delivering parcels across Zimbabwe. The company's fleet is comprehensively insured by Titanic Insurance Company. Included in the fleet policy is an exclusion which states inter-alia that the company shall not be liable for claims incurred whilst the insured vehicle is with the knowledge or consent of the insured being driven by an unlicensed driver.

In December the company usually experiences a sharp increase in business as many people send parcels to friends and relatives. The company usually increases the number of its trucks and vans on the road in order to cope with the large volume of business during this period. In December 2016 the company experienced an unprecedented increase in business and could not find sufficiently licensed drivers for some of its vehicles it intended to put on the road. It decided to employ some unlicensed drivers on short contracts. One of these drivers is Jabu. He holds a Class 4 license but is employed to drive a truck requiring one to have a Class 2 license. So in essence Jabu was not licensed to drive the truck in question.

One day while delivering some parcels in Bulawayo Jabu stopped at a traffic light. Some persons unknown jumped into the truck and forced Jabu to drive for a considerable distance along the Bulawayo-Harare road. They forced Jabu out of the truck and drove away with the truck and its contents. Transnational submit a claim to its insurer Titanic who immediately repudiate the claim alleging that the insured breached the unlicensed driver exclusion in the policy.

You are consulted by the risk manager of Transnational in connection with the repudiation of the claim by Titanic and asked to provide an opinion. The risk manager feels the insurer has no legally competent basis to repudiate the claim since he is of the opinion that there is no causal connection between excluded circumstances and the hijacking which was the proximate cause of the loss in this case. In the risk manager's opinion the truck would have been stolen anyway even if it were being driven by a driver holding a Class 2 license.

Prepare an opinion for the risk manager to enable him to make a decision on how to proceed with this matter