{"id":3618,"date":"2021-08-06T17:53:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/?p=3618"},"modified":"2021-08-06T17:51:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T17:51:46","slug":"malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees","title":{"rendered":"Malawi Supreme Court rebuffs MACRA on \u2018dismissed\u2019 employees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Malawi<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The Supreme Court of Appeal on Wednesday, August 4, 2021 ruled in favour of Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) employees whose contracts were recently nullified by the former Ombudsman, Martha Chizuma, allegedly because their employment was irregular.<\/p>\n

In her investigation report on MACRA\u2019s recruitment processes, dated May 10, 2021, the former Ombudsman invalidated 16 employment contracts after detecting several procedural illegalities and irregularities. MACRA proceeded to implement the Ombudsman\u2019s order and dismissed the employees.<\/p>\n

The affected employees included Director General, Godfrey Itaye, Administration Manager, McDonald Pato Phoya, Technical Advisor on Digital Migration, Benson Tembo, and Director of Administration, Henry Macheso, among others.<\/p>\n

The fired employees applied for a Judicial Review on the former Ombudsman\u2019s determination to nullify their positions at MACRA, which the court ruled in their favour.<\/p>\n

At same time, the employees had asked the High Court for stay of the Ombudsman\u2019s report pending judicial review, which the High Court rejected on the basis that the employees have alternative remedy under employment law.<\/p>\n

Basing on the High Court ruling, the employees challenged their employer\u2019s dismissal at the Industrial Relations Court (IRC). They also applied for interim relief that they be reinstated.<\/p>\n

The Chairperson for the IRC granted the interim order to the employees, staying termination of their employment following the nullification of their contracts of employment by the Ombudsman.<\/p>\n

The IRC also ordered that the employees be deemed to be on leave on half pay from the date of termination of their employment until conclusion of the matter in the Industrial Relations Court.<\/p>\n

However, the court ordered that the employees surrender motor vehicles assigned to them to the IRC and that the vehicles be parked at the High Court of Malawi premises at Chichiri in Blantyre.<\/p>\n

Instead of challenging the matter at IRC, having been aggrieved by the IRC interim relief granted to the employees, MACRA asked the High Court to exercise supervisory powers over IRC on its interim relief decision.<\/p>\n

The High Court rebuffed MACRA in Miscellaneous Civil Review Case No. 67 of 2021 Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority and Daniel Datchi, Godfrey Itaye & Others.<\/p>\n

On July 15, 2021, Justice Mandala Mambulasa determined under section 26 (1) of the Courts Act, the High Court has no jurisdiction to hear or entertain the MACRA\u2019s application for review of the Order of the Chairperson of the Industrial Relations Court made<\/p>\n

on June 28, 202. \u201cThe application for review is therefore declined,\u201d ruled Justice Mambulasa. In his ruling, the Judge Section 2 of the Courts Act is very clear that subordinate court means any court, subordinate to the High Court, established under the Courts Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the considered view of this Court that while the Industrial Relations Court is a subordinate court to the High Court in terms of section 110 (2) of the Republican Constitution, under the Courts Act, it is not. The simple reason is that it is not established under the<\/p>\n

Courts Act. Rather, the Industrial Relations Court is constituted under the Labour Relations Act. \u201cIf Parliament had wanted the Industrial Relations Court to be under the purview of the High Court in terms of its general supervisory and revisionary jurisdiction, it would have specifically amended the Courts Act to include it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not satisfied with Justice Mambulasa\u2019s determination, MACRA took the matter to the Supreme Court. \u201cMACRA did not appeal against the High Court ruling but just took the matter before Justice Mzikamanda, which was unprocedural,\u201d a lawyer closely following the matter told Nyasa Times in an interview on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Judge of the Supreme Court threw out MACRA\u2019s application and upheld both the IRC interim relief order and the judicial review on the former Ombudsman\u2019s determination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. The Supreme Court of Appeal on Wednesday, August 4, 2021 ruled in favour of Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) employees whose contracts were recently nullified by the former Ombudsman, Martha Chizuma, allegedly because their employment was irregular. In her investigation report on MACRA\u2019s recruitment processes, dated May 10, 2021, the former Ombudsman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[233,371,1574,234,1573],"class_list":["post-3618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-godfrey-itaye","tag-malawi","tag-malawi-communications-regulatory-authority"],"yoast_head":"\nMalawi Supreme Court rebuffs MACRA on \u2018dismissed\u2019 employees - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Supreme Court of Appeal on Wednesday, August 4, 2021 ruled in favour of Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority ( ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Malawi Supreme Court rebuffs MACRA on \u2018dismissed\u2019 employees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Supreme Court of Appeal on Wednesday, August 4, 2021 ruled in favour of Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority ( ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-06T17:53:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/08\/img-610d767c0039f.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Malawi Supreme Court rebuffs MACRA on \u2018dismissed\u2019 employees\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-06T17:53:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees\"},\"wordCount\":616,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/08\/img-610d767c0039f.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Godfrey Itaye,\",\"Malawi\",\"Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/malawi-supreme-court-rebuffs-macra-on-dismissed-employees\",\"name\":\"Malawi Supreme Court rebuffs MACRA on \u2018dismissed\u2019 employees - 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