NetOne Board Member Was Appointed But Snubbed From Board Meetings

The plot surrounding the suspension of NetOne CEO Lazarus Muchenje is thickening, with latest revelations pointing to the fact that in October a new board member was appointed on the NetOne board but they were never invited to attend any board meeting.

According to a Herald report, Douglas Mamvura received a letter from then ICT Minister Kazembe Kazembe:

Following the dissolution of the NetOne board on 18 October 2018, I am pleased to advise that His Excellence President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has authorised me to appoint you as a board member of the newly constituted board.  This appointment is with effect from 18 October, 2019 for four years

Letter to Douglas Mamvura by Kazembe Kazembe

Mr Mamvura is said to have not attended any board meeting since his appointment as he was not invited to any of the meetings:

I was properly appointed but I was never advised of any meetings.

Douglas Mamvura

Mr Mamvura also lamented the fact that he is now being served court papers, as one of the respondents in Lazarus Muchenje’s Urgent Court application for decisions he didn’t take part in:

I don’t know why I am being blocked and only those guys can tell you why. I am now being cited in court papers. . . to respond to the decisions made by the board when I was never part of it. It is unfair. There are some corporate governance deficiencies.

Lazarus Muchenje’s court application noted that the board meeting to suspend him was convened unlawfully and the absence of a board member from the meeting will definitely raise questions regarding the whole process, especially if a board member was never even consulted during the processes that lead to a CEO’s suspension.