T
he High Court Mzuzu Registry has set April 3 2025 to deliver judgement in the compensation case involving former workers of Opportunity International Bank of Malawi (OIBM).
The notice on the date comes after the ex-workers threatened to hold vigils at the Registry from yesterday until ‘justice’ is delivered in the case which begun in 2016 and has seen several judgement, assessments of awards for compensations and appeals.
OIBM was acquired by First Capital Bank plc in 2016, resulting in job losses for over 250 employees.
Unlike in other cases where courts issue notice of delivery of judgement, the court has in this case issued a notice of mention on delivery of judgement, which simply means that it is informing parties that a judge has made a decision and will be formally delivering it at a specific date, time, and place.
Reads the notice of mention dated March 25 2025: “Take note that the High Court of Malawi, Mzuzu Registry, has set the 3rd day of April 2025, at 9:00 in the forenoon for mention of the delivery of judgement in this matter.”
Acting Registrar of the Supreme Court and High Court of Malawi Innocent Nebi confirmed the development.
In an interview yesterday, representative of the 117 ex-workers, Aaron Kayira, said they wanted to hold the vigil as one way of ensuring that the ruling is made, after final hearing on the matter on December 19 2024, and judgement was expected within 90 days.
He said: “We will not proceed with our vigil because of the notice. It has been long and we have suffered.”
According to documents we have seen, the labour case at the Industrial Relations Court (IRC) was concluded in 2019, where the ex-workers were awarded K374 million as damages for unfair dismissal, but OIBM took the matter to the High Court, stopping the compensation process.
The stay order was effective until April 12 2023 when Judge Thomson Ligowe delivered judgement on the appeal, maintaining that the bank had unfairly dismissed them and that the damages should be paid but the case should go back to the IRC to reassess damages.
In October last year, the group wrote to Supreme Court of Appeal Judge Dingiswayo Madise asking the Judiciary Complaints Management Committee to assign a new judge in a case they are demanding damages for unfair dismissal.
After conducting a review, on June 16 2023, IRC deputy chairperson for Mzuzu Registry Anthony Kapaswiche ordered the bank to pay the ex-staff K753.5 million in compensation.
The bank sought a stay of execution from the same court, and deputy chairperson Kapaswiche denied the stay on July 25.
However, on July 26 2023 Ligowe granted a stay of execution to the bank, which also stopped any seizure of the bank’s property and scheduled inter partes hearing, which finally happened on December 19.
