NDAMU SANDU
HARARE – The High Court has suspended NetOne CEO Lazarus Muchenje’s application for the court to rescind the mobile network operator’s board meeting which passed a resolution to renew the contracts of nine executives, ruling it as not urgent.
Muchenje had approached the court to declare null and void a special board meeting held on July 28 which reinstated the fired nine executives and suing the company and 17 others.
In a letter dated August 8, 2018, Registrar of the High Court said Muchenje was free to pursue the matter but as an ordinary court application. Muchenje’s lawyers Gerald Mlotshwa and Company had earlier written a letter to the court on the urgency of the case.
In response, a letter signed for the registrar said the application had been placed before Justice Erica Ndewere who commented that: “NetOne Private Limited is not the applicant. So the application has no chance because the applicant is a wrong party. How will the applicant show prima facie right to himself as an individual as opposed to the institution which he did not involve? How can he show irreparable harm to himself?”
Muchenje flew into a storm last month after terminating the contracts of the nine executives that include chief operating officer Brian Mutandiro and chief finance officer Sibusisiwe Ndlovu.
The board convened a meeting which overturned the decision on the basis that Muchenje had not consulted the board before making the decision. Muchenje was suspended last week without full pay and benefits for allegedly taking drastic action against senior management without proper consultation with the board and challenging its authority. Muchenje was accused of allegedly undermining the authority of the board by escalating issues that are properly before the board to the Ministry of Information Communication Technology and Cybersecurity. Nkosinathi Ncube is currently the acting CEO.
Muchenje was appointed to the top post in April after it had been vacant since the suspension and subsequent firing of Reward Kangai by the company in 2016.
The High Court setback for Muchenje comes as the board is finalising the dates when the executive would appear before a disciplinary hearing. Board chairman Peter Chingoka told Business Times yesterday that Muchenje would soon appear before a disciplinary hearing.
NetOne is the country’s second largest mobile network operator. The operator experienced a 46,7 percent decline in subscriptions in the first quarter of the year to 2 634 137 from 4 957 1015 recorded in the fourth quarter of last year, according to an industry report by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe. The operator’s market share was 23 percent in the first quarter of 2018, behind runaway leader Econet at 65 percent and head of Telecel’s 12 percent.
