Former Salima Sugar Company Limited (SSCL) security manager, Osman Kapida, has challanged the mandate of Chairperson Wester Kosamu who is still working with the company despite the expiry of his term.
In a letter signed by his lawyers Mbulo Attorneys, Kapida demanded that the disciplinary processes against him be reversed arguing that his dismissal is null and void.
“Our client avers that you do not have the mandate to undertake disciplinary processes against him and that your letter dated 18th February, 2025 signed by yourself, dismissing him from employment, is null and void. Our client is aware that when the Executive Chairman, Mr Shireesh Betgiri, left Salima Sugar Company Limited, you were Chairperson of Greenbelt Authority as duly appointed by the State President.
“The Board of Greenbelt Authority, being the parent organization for Salima Sugar Company Limited, resolved that one of the Board members should be a care-taker Chairperson of Salima Sugar Company Limited. Our client avers that you found yourself at Salima Sugar Company Limited by virtue of being a member and Chairperson of Greenbelt Authority.
“Our client argues that the moment your term as Chair of Greenbelt Authority expired on or around 3rd August, 2024, your mandate at Salima Sugar Company Limited equally lapsed. Our client is also aware that there has not been any Board at Salima Sugar Company Limited ever since the former Chairperson, Mr Shireesh Betgiri, left and no Board would have employed you as Chief Executive Officer of Salima Sugar Company Limited.
“There has never been any advert for recruitment of a Chief Executive Officer for Salima Sugar Company Limited and our client avers that you cannot produce any letter of appointment of yourself as Chief Executive Officer from either the Board of Salima Sugar Company Limited or Greenbelt Authority.
“Yet our client has given us documents (one of which is attached hereto for ease of reference) in which you purport to sign as either Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Salima Sugar Company Limited, yet you were still holding the position of Chair for Greenbelt Authority. As a Legal Practitioner, you ought to have been aware of rules of corporate governance.
“Our client is of the view that you breached rules of corporate governance by simultaneously acting as Board Chair of Greenbelt Authority, Chairperson and also Chief Executive Officer of Salima Sugar Company Limited. Whoever mandated you to act as such ought to have realized that your holding of all these positions at once was illegal.
“Since you were working as Executive Chairperson at Salima Sugar Company Limited by virtue of your Chairmanship of the Greenbelt Authority Board, and since your term as Chairperson of Greenbelt Authority expired around 3rd August, 2024 as aforesaid, and since no lawful authority appointed you as Chief Executive Officer at Salima Sugar Company Limited, it is the view of our client that you do not have any mandate to transact any lawful business at Sulima Sugar Company Limited, including dismissing our client from employment.
“It is also the view of our client that since there are no Boards at both Greenbelt Authority and Salima Sugar Company Limited, your decision subjecting our client, being a senior employee of the company, to a disciplinary process, without 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 as Security Manager for Salima Sugar Company Limited 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.
“By copy of this letter, our client urges the office of the Secretary to the President and Cabinet, and the Honourable the Attorney General to ensure that rule of law in general and rules of corporate governance in particular, prevail at Greenbelt Authority and Salima Sugar Company Limited.
“Our client demands that, within 7 days from the date hereof, the office of the President and Cabinet should take action against violation of corporate governance rules happening at Greenbelt Authority and Salima Sugar Company Limited, failing which our client shall file a court action to stop the illegality,” reads part of the letter dated February 21 2024.
