The Telecel Board has sent out a press release to the effect that Francis Mawindi has been suspended from the Telecel Board of Directors with immediate effect. Francis Mawindi used to be CEO of the MNO.
The Telecel Zimbabwe Board of Directors wishes to inform all stakeholders that a resolution has been passed for the suspension of Mr Francis Mawindi from holding office of Telecel Zimbabwe Board of Director effective the 6th of June 2019, pending final Resolution by the Shareholders in terms of the Companies Act.
This is following Francis Mawindi’s serious breach of the common law fiduciary duty of confidentiality and to act in the best interests of the company through communicating and misrepresenting confidential company information
By order of the Board
Dr J. Makamba
Not so simple
As with all things Telecel lately, the issue is not as simple. Mawindi says he has not leaked any confidential information about the company to anyone. He says:
My response is that the resolution that has been passed is false and therefore null and void due to the fact that I never communicated with the press on any matters concerning the company and never in any way, shape or form misrepresented confidential company information. I believe that the chairman seized an opportunity to cover up the shenanigans happening in the company and I’m sure the truth will soon come out
Mawindi goes on to dispute the legality of the board composition at the moment and challenges that the board is not fully constituted at the moment and thus cannot legally pass a resolution to suspend him:
It’s important to note that I was appointed to the board of directors of Telecel Zimbabwe by the principal and majority shareholder of the company, Telecel International and not by the chairman of the company and as such the purported resolution of the board is null and void. There are supposed to be a minimum of 3 board directors from TI and 2 from EC as per the existing shareholders agreement and since the resignation of Barbara Rwodzi from the Board late last year (who represented TI) there has not been a replacement and so to date the board is still not fully represented
The appointment to the board can only be rescinded by the appointing authority, which in this case is Telecel International, the majority shareholder.
Wait, what?
Mawindi mentions Telecel International as the majority shareholder in Telecel Zimbabwe. This sounded strange and we said so when we first ran the story because back in 2016 the government of Zimbabwe acquired 60% stake in Telecel. In fact, Telecel International is owned by the government and so the government does own 60% of Telecel Zimbabwe through Telecel International.
Last year there was a running battle between James Makamba and President Mnangagwa’s son in law, Gerald Mlotshwa over the remaining 40% stake in Telecel. At some point, communique from Telecel said Makamba had agreed to pull out only for Makamba to deny any such development a few hours later.
To be honest, the whole structure of Telecel is now very hazy and we need to probe further to understand the goings on at the company. Whatever it is, it really needs solving immediately because Telecel is continuing to hang in the balance and making losses.
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13 comments
You’ve left your story hanging somewhere. If he was fired/stepped down in 2013, what is he still doing there in 2019?
The problems are beyond the board at Telecel, they need to get rid of some dead wood within the organisation before they even get to board level.
It’s of paramount importance that the unsubstantiated allegations by a board member are investigated and if proven true that the CEO is indeed incompetent he should be resigned. I smell collusion between Makamba and Vere, how a CEO has reigned for so long on a position despite the company’s poor performance throught the past 7 years is questionable.
It’s now evident that Mahwindi is being sucked by Makamba to protect his blue eyed girl Vere, If government want to cut off the oil pipe to Makamba and Mutasa they know what they need to do, get rid of Vere and Chinake It’s no public secret that these two are funding makamba and Mutasa through contracts and donations, if you do a lifestyle audit of the Telecel CEO and the FD you will notice that the rest of the Telecel Execs are powerless and impoverished while these two are building estates and business local and abroad and this is at the expense of an ailling network.
In my interaction with Telecel for the past years as a stackholder I have noted with great concern that this company is run by three people only Chinake FD/CEO, Vere CEO, Mandimika ??. For such an organisation of it’s size and industry it is not healthy to concentrate power and decisions only to a handfew of individuals.
It is a shame when boardroom politics have to come out in the open, the Government needs to intervene and sanitize the situation. While the CEO and Board members are fighting each other the company is suffering. Such a great Network almost made it to number sending Econet’s tail wagging, what went wrong.
It seems ever since the return of James Makamba to Zimbabwe things are just going south for Telecel, Makamba needs to go back to South Africa and leave Telecel alone. The only time we want to hear of his name is if he is bringing investment and talking of reviving the Network.
I attended a funding meeting at Ministry of ICT where Telecel operations was the key highlight of discussion with there performance commentary centered more on lack of funding as a justification for the company’s poor performance, Yet just a month ago the ceo purchased a 2019 Toyota Land Cruiser full spec worth $250,000USD imported from South Africa paid from the company’s nostro accounts equivalent to the $2 million RTGS which my bank had extended as a loan using the company’s Building as collateral. So you question some of the decisions that the CEO and Makamba are making whether they are in the best interest of Telecel or for self enrichment. They is a real need for a forensic audit to ascertain all the red flags being raised in this SOE. The only problem which is there now is that Politicians have a penchant for working with criminals because they conform to instructions wheres ethical leaders do not. This will be a defining moment for Kazembe Kazembe to make a bold move like his predecessor did with Kangai at Netone. #savetelecel
Yet for Telecel to purchase a macro BTS the installation will probably be $30,000 and up. Site acquisition will run well over $20,000 per site. Backhaul installation will probably be over $5,000 a site. OpEx will be over $1,000 per month per site and the backhaul will probably be over $1,500 per month per site and she decides to buy a car worth $250,000 which depreciate and does not generate revenue. Kazembe Kazembe needs to fire both the Board and the CEO #ASAP
Saka murikuti amai ava varikutungamirira Telecel vakadya mari yemaInternet stations 7 kungoti vazvifadze varimumota ye 2million dollars havo kambani ichifa kudaro shuwa? Asi nyika yaparara chokwadi, arimabasa eZanu ekudzidzisa vanhu kudya zvavasina kuvhima. Tendai Biti akataura kuti vanhu vanofanira kudya zvavauraya asi chakanganisa nyika ndochokuda kudya zvavasina kurima. KuMbara takawanda chose asi signal yacho haitobata nyangwe kambani yacho iri pedo.
So Telecel has 14 LTE base stations yet the CEO decides to go shopping for a damn truck for USD$250k=$2million, God forbid, then you blame the world for less women leaders in society. Im switching to Netone until Telecel is serious #savetelecel
Chawora chinhu ichi
Gossip as usual without facts is very detrimental. We are all aware of the deterioration in Zim economy on most business sectors Telecel included. We should avoid apportioning blame and try and bring to the table innovative ideas to boost this