There are questions at Salima Sugar Company about the validity of Wester Peter Kossam’s role as executive chairperson, as his contract apparently expired in August last year.
Kossam denies these claims, attributing them to political motives and stating that he was appointed by the board.
He accuses those seeking his removal of trying to exploit the company illegally.
Kossam found himself at the company after the former executive chairperson, Shireesh Betgiri, was pushed out.
Kossam, who was at that time chairperson of the Greenbelt Authority (GBA), the parent organisation of Salima Sugar Company Limited, took over the role.
However, the tenure for the GBA board expired on August 3 2024, and a dismissed employee, Osman Kapida, who was the chief security manager, argues that the executive chairperson has no legal authority to sack him.
Through Mbulo Attorneys, he has written Kossam, arguing that the moment his tenure ended as chairperson of GBA, his mandate at Salima Sugar Company Limited equally lapsed.
The letter dated February 21, 2025, which The Nation has seen, also argues that there has not been any board at Salima Sugar Company Limited since Betgiri left and no board would have employed Kossam.
Reads the letter in part: “Our client is of the view that you breached rules of corporate governance by simultaneously acting as board chairperson of GBA, chairperson and also chief executive officer of Salima Sugar Company Limited.
“Whoever mandated you to act as such ought to have realised that your holding of all these positions at once was illegal.”
The letter further adds that since there are no boards at both GBA and Salima Sugar Company Limited, the decision subjecting Kapida, being a senior employee to a disciplinary process, without the blessings of any board, was ill-advised and outright illegal.
“It is on the basis of the totality of the foregoing points that we demand that the disciplinary processes against our client should be reversed, and that our client should immediately be reinstated before close of business on Tuesday, 25th February, 2025.
“If you do not comply with this demand, we shall immediately obtain an interim order from the court, staying the impugned disciplinary processes pending determination of the substantive issues by the Court,” warns the lawyer.
The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) has also been told to take action against “violation of corporate governance rules happening at GBA and Salima Sugar Company Limited” failing which Kapida will file a court action to stop the alleged illegality.
When contacted, Kossam, a lawyer by profession, dismissed the matter, saying he was duly appointed by the Salima Sugar Company Board and it is the only authority which can remove him from his position.
He said: “I was appointed by a board which had 11 members, and the minutes of their decision are available. So, the company should stop operating, decisions shouldn’t be made and people should continue breaking the law because there is no board? My position is permanent unless the board decides otherwise.
“It’s all politics. Kapida’s lawyers should have asked me first before writing that letter, because it seems he has wrong information. The best way is to humble oneself and apologise, not what he is doing.”
Comptroller of Statutory Corporations Peter Simbani confirmed the firing of Kapida, saying, a disciplinary hearing took place and a verdict was reached.
“About why Kossam is still in that position after the tenure of GBA board expired, I may not competently talk on that. The matter is a bit complicated,” he said, adding that names for a new GBA board have now been identified for confirmation.
Salima Sugar Company was established in 2015 as a public private partnership between the Malawi Government with a 40 percent stake and AUM Sugar and Allied Limited of India with 60 percent stake.
However, in 2023, Malawi Government terminated the shareholding due to alleged breach of contract after a forensic audit revealed that $35 million (about K61 billion) invested in the company could not be accounted for.
