Court rescinds Egenco executives’ injunction
The Industrial Relations Court (IRC) in Blantyre has rescinded an injunction two Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) top executives obtained early this month against a decision to send them on forced leave.
The court’s decision to rescind an injunction which the same court granted on October 5 this year follows Egenco chief executive officer Engineer William Liabunya and director of corporate services and company secretary Videlia Mluwira’s withdrawal of their original application.
Appearing before the IRC in Blantyre yesterday, the applicants through their lawyer Mauya Msuku noted that fighting for an interlocutory injunction now would not serve its purpose as the forensic audit that compelled their forced leave is underway.
Said Msuku: “Following the stay of the injunction, the applicants have been at home for three weeks. So, basically what we are saying is we don’t come to court to pursue academic exercise or argument. In a sense what we intended to stop has already been done. So what is the point then of pursuing such interlocutory applications.”
In his ruling, IRC chairperson Austine Msowoya directed the rescission of the original motion for an order of urgent interim relief without prejudice.
He then adjourned the matter to November 21 2023 where the court is expected to give direction for further conduct of the matter or make any order the court shall deem appropriate.
Reads the ruling in part: “For the avoidance of doubt, applicants in the interim continue to be and are to remain on leave as subject to the terms and conditions outlined in the respondents’ memo placing said applicants on leave until a further order of this court.”
In his oral submission earlier yesterday, Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda asked the court to dismiss the entire application, saying some of the issues raised cannot be handled by the IRC, but the High Court.
In letters dated October 3 2023 to Liabunya and Mluwira, Secretary to the Treasury MacDonald Mafuta Mwale, in his capacity as shareholder, said the forensic audit will investigate how Egenco responded after the two cyclones damaged infrastructure, leading to persistent and prolonged power rationing.
The shareholders said they noted that the parastatal was subjected to devastating damage due to Cyclone Ana in January 2022 and Cyclone Gombe in March of the same year.
The decision comes after President Lazarus Chakwera, during the opening of the Malawi Bureau of Standards office complex and laboratory and Malawi International Trade Fair in Blantyre on May 17 2023, accused Egenco management of lack of urgency in the handling of the restoration of Kapichira Hydro-electric Power Station in Chikwawa, which took a year and three months to complete.
Tropical Storm Ana damaged infrastructure in January 2022, taking off about 129.6 megawatts (MW) of electricity from the national grid. However, Malawi Government waited until July 2022 to source $60 million on behalf of Egenco from the World Bank for the energy restoration project.
In September last year, Egenco indicated that Kapichira would be restored by December 22.
However, the deadline was missed after it emerged that the project, which involved restoration of power generation and redesigning the whole dam structure to make it resilient to floods, faced operational challenges which stalled the works for some days.
