PetroTrade executives challenge fails

Chief Court Reporter

TWO embattled top executives at State-owned petroleum company PetroTrade’s bid to challenge their placement on “mandatory leave” hit a brick wall after the High Court refused to hear their application.

Mr Cougan Matanhire is the company’s chief operations officer while Ms Nomsa Chitsa is the business development director.

They were, two weeks ago, forced to go on “mandatory leave” by the company’s acting chief executive officer, pending investigations for allegedly improper conduct.

The pair was allegedly advised of the suspension following a meeting with the acting chief executive who intimated that it was a directive via text message from the Ministry of Energy and Power Development Permanent secretary Engineer Gloria Magombo.

They responded by rushing to the High Court to declare the Minister’s directive invalid at law.

But Justice Owen Tagu ruled the matter was purely a labour issue which should have been taken to the Labour Court.

“Clearly, this court has no jurisdiction to deal with labour issues despite that they are also seeking a declaratur,” he said in agreement with the counsel for PetroTrade that Mr Matanhire and Ms Chitsa approached the wrong court.

“It is trite that although this court had original jurisdiction over all civil and criminal matters, it does not have jurisdiction on labour matters even if what is being sought is declaratory relief. I, therefore, decline to exercise my jurisdiction in this matter.”

Early last month, Energy and Power Development Minister Soda Zhemu suspended the Tinomudaishe Chinyoka-chaired board pending investigations into what they described as “corporate governance issues”.