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Mandaza's return to Mirror shortlived
By
Staff Reporter
THE
Zimbabwe Mirror Newspaper Group (ZMNG) board prepared for a legal confrontation
Wednesday after defying a High Court order to reinstate ousted CEO and
editor-in-chief, Ibbo Mandaza.
The High Court declared Mandaza's suspension null and void on Tuesday.
Justice Bharat Patel granted Mandaza's application to be allowed to work pending the outcome of his legal battle to take back control of the newspaper group. The matter had been referred to arbitration, but an arbitration panel last week said it had no jurisdiction.
Sources at the Mirror said the board had resolved to suspend Mandaza for a second time, preventing him from resuming his duties. And on Wednesday, the Daily Mirror curiously did not publish a story about Mandaza's reinstatement.
A journalist at the Mirror said: "We haven't seen Mandaza and the indications are that the board will suspend him once again. There is a bit of uncertainty about the whole thing."
Telephone messages left for Mandaza had not been returned late Wednesday afternoon.
The Mirror boss went to court last week to intensify his fight against suspension and to retain control of the media house's newspapers taken over by the country's state security agency. He was suspended in October.
Mandaza has been struggling since then to regain control of the Mirror group, publishers of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, taken over by the Central Intelligence Organsiation (CIO) using public funds. He founded the company in 1997 before the CIO bought in between 2002 and 2004.
The CIO also reportedly has interests in the business weekly, the Financial Gazette, and other media outlets including news websites, a production house, and influences in state-owned media newsrooms.
There have been reports that the CIO was also behind the closure of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe titles - Daily News and Daily News on Sunday - as well as the Tribune and Weekly Times.
The CIO's involvement in the media was widely seen as an attempt to further undermine the country's small but vibrant private press for its forthright criticism of the government.
While the CIO has taken over the Mirror papers, Mandaza still argues he is the legal owner and has proposed a way of selling or re-selling the papers to the intelligence service. But the CIO has ignored his proposal and established control of the publications.
Patel last week ruled that the disputed Mirror board's summoning of Mandaza to appear before a disciplinary committee the same day was null and void and issued a court order against it.
The Mirror board, chaired by Jonathan Kadzura, summoned Mandaza to a disciplinary hearing two weeks ago, citing allegations of fraud, but other board members loyal to Mandaza refused to attend.
Patel warned if Kadzura and his associates proceeded with their hearing it would be in contempt of court.
Kadzura alleged in a letter to Mandaza two weeks ago that the reason why the former boss was suspended was that he had mishandled company finances.
Mandaza's lawyers have dismissed the allegations as false and contrived.
Arbitration on the
matter failed to proceed last week after the chairman of the panel,
former chief justice Anthony Gubbay, and his two colleagues, ex-Institute
of Chartered Accountants president David Vincent and chairman of the
Institute of Directors Much Masunda, agreed they had no jurisdiction
to hear the case - Staff Reporter/Zim Independent
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