Trouble is brewing for conglomerate Press Corporation plc board members over a
case in which the company has been ordered to compensate its three former top
executives for unlawful termination of employment.
Some minority shareholders of the conglomerate want some board members
removed after the Industrial Relations Court (IRC) on Tuesday ordered PCL to
compensate former Group Chief Executive Offer George Partridge, former Group
Financial Controller Elizabeth Mafeni and former Group Administrative Executive and
General Counsel Bernard Ndau for unlawful termination of employment.
One of the Minority Shareholders Association of Malawi (MSHAM) Dr Mukadam who
also attended the ruling of the matter in Blantyre expressed shock at the decisions
that were taken by the PCL board which failed to explain why the three were fired
under the disquise of retrenchment following a functional review.
“We expect the directors will give us a plausible explanation on why they made a
harp hazard decision to fire the three. It is sad that they even failed to produce
evidence of a board meeting where this decision was made let alone a report on the
functional review which they themselves instituted.”
“Now we are going to pay these people a lot of millions if not billions of kwachas for
the reckless decisions of a few board members and we are the ones who are going
to pay this money which is unfair. I think its high time these directors should be
made liable to personally pay for things like these” said Mukadam.
Another shareholder said they will be calling for an extra-ordinary AGM where they
are going to propose for the removal of some board members including Chairman of
the Board Randson Mwadiwa.
“This is a big scandal and we need to remove these people so that companies
should appreciate rules of good governance, it should not just be sweet talk, we
should be walking the talk” he said.
Delivering his judgment, IRC Deputy Chairperson, Tamanda Nyimba observed that as
a leading and oldest conglomerate, the manner in which PCL terminated the services
of the three did not reflect the high prestige with which people hold the institution as
regards the observance of corporate governance principles.
He ordered that the three should be compensated. The three are yet to submit a
petition of their compensation package as ordered by the court but insiders believe it
will be millions if not billions of kwachas.
The IRC is yet to set a date when it will determine the compensation for the three
former executives.