Iuze Mukube
After successfully suing Ongwediva Medipark private hospital for unfair dismissal, prominent medical doctor Tshali Iithete was granted N$3.4 million in damages.
Not only that, Iithete is also to be reinstated into his former position.
Labour arbitrator Moses Mazambo ordered Ongwediva Medipark (Pty) Ltd. on Friday to reinstate Iithete as managing director, effective 1 December 2024.
The arbitrator further ordered Iithete to be paid a sum of N$3 360 820, equivalent to his 20 months of salary loss due to his dismissal.
Mazambo issued these directives after finding that Iithete’s dismissal as MD at the Ongwediva Medipark in September 2022 was procedurally and substantively unfair.
The legal tussle began after Iithete was suspended and consequently charged following a disciplinary hearing.
He faced 17 counts of misconduct, including dishonesty, unauthorised use of company property, fraud, gross negligence, failure to comply with terms of employment contract, conflict of interest, and insubordination, among others.
In response, Iithete lodged an unfair dismissal complaint against the hospital.
Mazambo found that Iithete was not only an employee, but he was also a shareholder and a director in more than one of the company’s subsidiaries, including Ongwediva Medipark, and has been MD of the hospital since July 2014.
Riel du Toit, chairperson of Ongwediva Medipark’s board of directors, testified that Iithete entered into a business agreement with RentWorks Namibia without board authorisation.
In terms of that agreement, signed in March 2018, the subsidiary, Ongwediva Medipark Properties, sold intensive care unit and paediatric ward equipment to RentWorks.
Additionally, he testified that Iithete neglected to inform the company about his ownership stake in Northern Surgical CC, a close corporation that provided the company with equipment.
Another witness, Matthias Braune, said that prior to Iithete’s suspension in 2021, the company was losing N$11 million a month and was on the verge of going out of business when he discovered a N$25 million “gross financial mismanagement” during a company investigation.
However, Mazambo noted that procedures were in all aspects breached when Du Toit played multiple roles in the issue by investigating Iithete’s mismanagement and misconduct allegations, making recommendations to the company’s board, initiating disciplinary charges, testifying during the hearing, and actively participating in board meetings that ultimately decided Iithete’s fate.
Thus, the arbitrator concluded this was “irregular and unprocedural, to say the least.”
Additionally, he claimed that Du Toit “clearly had an axe to grind against [Iithete]” to the point that he failed to recognise the “glaring bias” brought about by his many positions during the investigation and disciplinary procedure.
Mazambo ruled that the disciplinary hearing chairperson should have used a 2006 human resources policy, instead of Ongwediva Medipark’s 2019 policy, which had not been approved by the board.
Furthermore, in September 2022, a board meeting approved Iithete’s dismissal, attended by only three directors, but a valid resolution required signatures from all directors, according to the company’s article of association.
Thus, Mazambo concluded that Ongwediva Medipark’s disciplinary action, which resulted in Iithete’s termination, was “replete with irregularities.”
The company was represented by Dalon Quickfall and Iithete by Sisa Namandje.
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