There was drama during the hearing of ex-Press Corporation Limited (PCL) bosses’ compensation case where PCL Chief Finance Officer Moureen Mbeye lashed out at her own boss, PCL Chief Executive Officer Ronald Mangani for commenting on the case.
It started during cross examination by lawyer John Suzi Banda representing the three ex-bosses namely George Partridge who was Group Chief Executive Officer, Benard Ndau who was Group Administrative Executive and Company Secretary and Elizabeth Mafeni who was Group Financial Controller, when Mbeye disassociated PCL from comments made by the Minority Shareholders of Listed Companies Ltd (MISALICO) who released a press statement, which among other things attacked the judgement of the Industrial Court on the case.
IRC Deputy Chairperson, Tamanda Nyimba had earlier ruled in favour of the three ex-bosses for unlawful termination of services and ordered their compensation.
Mbeye, who was a key witness for PCL during Friday’s hearing told the court that there was no collusion between MISALICO and PCL saying the facts that were contained in the press statement by MISALICO were incorrect and did not agree with them.
In the press statement MISALICO urged PCL to appeal against the ruling and attacked the judgement of the court on the matter suggesting that the three ex-bosses were consulted during the functional review which recommended their firing when the court ruled in the opposite.
Answering a question from Suzi-Banda as to whether by publishing the said article, MISALICO was in contempt of court, Mbeye agreed that it was improper for MISALICO to publish the said statement which was commenting directly on an on-going court matter.
“There was no collusion between MISALICO and PCL and the facts presented were wrong. It was also not proper for our CEO (Dr Mangani) to comment on an on-going court case,” said Mbeye.
As if this drama was not enough, Mbeye was adamant on her role as board member of PCL’s heartbeat subsidiary, National Bank of Malawi (NBM) plc which contributes highly to the financial muscle of PCL.
Suzi-Banda asked if it was proper for Mbeye, who is a board member at NBM plc, to apply for a management position of Chief Finance Officer at the Bank.
Mbeye said when she applied for the position, she resigned from her position as board member and attended the interviews which she failed as the position was offered to another NBM plc employee Daniel Jere.
She said she then returned to her position as a board member at NBM plc and sits in the Finance and Audit Committee of the Board, which supervises Jere, who holds a position which Mbeye desperately wanted.
Asked if she is not conflicted and what this means to ‘rules of good governance’ which the Bank respects, Mbeye was adamant that she is not conflicted.
Mbeye also told the court that Press Trust, a majority shareholder in PCL, appoints 4 of the 6 non-executive directors that sit on the PCL Board which include Press Trust Executive Secretary Gibson Ngalamila.
She was asked in court about her relationship with Ngalamila and PCL Chief Operating Officer Dr Lyton Chithambo, which she said the three were classmates at the university.
The court heard that Ngalamila had posted on their class WhatsApp group that there would be changes in leadership at PCL, way before a consultant was hired to conduct a functional review which eventually saw the three bosses fired while Mbeye and Chithambo survived the chop.
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Mbeye denied that Ngalamila ever posted the issue on their class WhatsApp group and said ‘it is by sheer coincidence that only Mr. Ngalamila’s classmates were not affected by the retrenchments at PCL’.
The three ex-bosses submitted a whooping K34 billion compensations claim and the court is set to deliver judgement on the claim on a date to be communicated to the parties.
