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Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
Former Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) managing director Mr Henry Mandishona has filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking to stop any intentions by the employer to replace him.

PSMAS has since placed an advertisement in the Press inviting qualified people to apply for the post of managing director.

Mr Mandishona, who was employed for the job on May 1 last year, was suspended on September 4 the same year to allow for some investigations into misconduct allegations levelled against him.

In November last year, a disciplinary hearing convicted him and ordered his dismissal despite him having referred the matter for conciliation.

Mr Mandishona was contesting the manner in which the disciplinary hearing was being conducted.

A labour officer then nullified the disciplinary proceedings on the basis that confirmed that the company proceeded to determine the matter when it had since been referred for conciliation.

Efforts by Mr Mandishona to get back to work were frustrated by the company’s intention to recruit his replacement in the face of a determination by the labour officer that reinstated him. Through his lawyer Mr Tawanda Nyamasoka of Artherstone and Cook, Mr Mandishona has filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court to bar PSMAS from inviting applications and carrying out interviews for a new managing director.

According to the application, Mr Mandishona said if the post is filled up, he will face challenges in enforcing his reinstatement determination by a labour officer.

“I will therefore be greatly prejudiced in that, if the said position is occupied, I will face challenges in enforcing the determination from the labour officer which ordered my reinstatement.

“Respondent will simply argue that the position has been filled and therefore it cannot comply with the directive,” he said.

Mr Mandishona urged the court to interdict PSMAS from continuing to subvert due process of the law.

“I am alive to the fact that as an alternative to reinstatement, I can seek damages in lieu of reinstatement. However, I argue that this is not a satisfactory remedy in circumstances where reinstatement can still be tenable and further, there is no amount of damages which will be able to compensate me for loss of employment.

“In the premise, it becomes incumbent upon this Honourable Court to interdict respondent from subverting the course of justice pending finalisation of the dispute as I intend to enforce the labour officer’s determination,” reads the application.

PSMAS is yet to respond to the application ahead of the hearing date, which is yet to be set.