The State broadcaster was trying to recover a motorbike
valued at US$800 and 82.49 litres of fuel worth US$143.5326, which is
US$943.5326 in total from two employees Sebastian Mukono and Tawanda Mandeya.
ZBC used a top law firm to institute disciplinary
proceedings against the duo and it was
billed more than US$9000 for the
legal services.
One of the employees, Tawanda Mandeya, has since been
acquitted of the offence after a full disciplinary hearing, according to
documents seen by this publication.
ZBC workers’ council wrote a memorandum dated November 6,
2023 to the company executives complaining about the loss of funds by the
public broadcaster through legal fees.
The employees quizzed why the company preferred external
legal services instead of using the internal legal department to resolve some
of the issues.
“The HR [human resource] and the corporate departments
should discharge their responsibilities diligently so that the corporation
cannot lose revenue in these cases,” the memo reads.
“When we consider the simple logic without going into the
merits of the case, how do we recover the lost property without going for an
external lawyer?
“How is ZBC going to recover US$9000, which has gone down the drain?
“How much more is the company losing through these dubious
legal shenanigans? What is the purpose
of the legal and HR department at ZBC then?.”
This publication heard that the public broadcaster appealed
against the acquittal of the employee using the legal services of the same law
firm, but the employees said this was contrary to section 20 of the ZBC code of
conduct.
“The disciplinary committee represents the HR or the
company (ZBC), which means disciplinary committee ruling cannot be appealed
against by the company.
It’s like the company is appealing against itself,” a
source within ZBC said.
“It gives a chance
to an aggrieved employee to appeal to the HR if the employee is not happy with
the disciplinary hearing outcome.
“ Section 20.13 of the ZBC code of conduct allows both
parties to appeal to the labour officer if one of the parties is not happy with
the outcome from the Appeals Committee.”
ZBC workers and the administration led by Adlaide
Chikunguru have been on each other’s neck for a while
Two weeks ago, the workers wrote to the newly appointed
board led by Helliate Rushwaya threatening job action over poor salaries and
working conditions.
Chikunguru and her
administration last week wrote to this
publication demanding retraction of a story that exposed the infighting.
Through their lawyers Mushoriwa-Pasi Attorneys, the ZBC
executives said the allegation by the corporation’s workers that they were
frustrating efforts to improve their working conditions were false and
defamatory.
Chikunguru was not reachable for comment yesterday despite
repeated efforts to contact her on her mobile phone. Standard
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