Mandaza suspension referred to tribunal

By Lance Guma
14 October 2005

A High court judge on Thursday ruled that the suspension of Ibbo Mandaza as chief executive officer of the Mirror Group of newspapers should be referred to a tribunal. Justice Bharat Patel said the panel should look into the circumstances surrounding Mandaza’s suspension and determine the merits behind the allegations.

The Commercial Arbitration Centre has been tasked with facilitating the appointment of the panel, which will have a retired judge, a member of the Institute of Directors of Zimbabwe and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe. It has since come out that the Ernst & Young audit report used to justify suspending Mandaza made no reference to the siphoning of funds to other companies.

Two members of the Mirror board, Amy Tsanga and Buzwani Mothobi have accused the other board members of firing Mandaza prematurely on the basis of a draft report. The final report is said to have been released two days after Mandaza had already been suspended.

Meanwhile former Mirror deputy editor in chief, Alexander Kanengoni who was fired in August by Mandaza, has since bounced back with the newspaper. To boost morale in the newsroom, the board now controlled by the intelligence services has awarded workers 60 percent salary increases backdated to July this year. The Central Intelligence Organisation, using dummy companies, took over the two Mirror newspapers and has since been asserting its authority as demonstrated by the dismissal of Mandaza.