THE Labour Court has ordered the financially-troubled Air Zimbabwe to reinstate former strategy and economic manager, Nobert Machingauta to his position or negotiate his exit package if his services were no longer required at the parastatal.
PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
Machingauta was suspended in January 2014 on allegations of authorising mega payments to a local insurance firm, Navistar Insurance, through an insurance scam that forensic auditors BCA claimed caused the national airline to lose $11 million.
On October 19 this year, Justice Euna Makamure issued a default judgment after the national airline failed to file its papers or send a lawyer to represent it at the hearing despite being properly served.
According to court papers, a disciplinary hearing was conducted sometime in February 2014 and recommended that Machingauta be dismissed but he contested the committee’s ruling and appealed to the Labour Court.
In her ruling, Justice Makamure said the dismissal was null and void and Machingauta should be reinstated.
“The decision of the disciplinary hearing authority handed down on February 27, 2014 be and is, hereby, set aside. The respondent be and is, hereby, ordered to reinstate the applicant from date of dismissal without loss of salary and benefits,” she ruled.
“In the event that reinstatement is no longer an option, either party is entitled to approach this court for quantification of damages in lieu of reinstatement.”
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AirZim was further ordered to pay the costs of the suit on an attorney and client scale.
The ruling becomes the second major loss for the airline after earlier this year the courts also ordered the reinstatement of dismissed company secretary and acting managing director, Grace Pfumbidzayi.
When the ruling was made Pfumbidzayi was at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison serving a 10-year sentence for abuse of office.
Pfumbidzayi has since been released on bail pending appeal at the High Court and the parties have since started negotiating a severance package.
