Former PEEPA CEO fights for reinstatement

Despite victory at the Industrial Court where it was decided the dismissal of former PEEPA CEO, Ezekiel Moumakwa was procedurally unfair, the latter says he should have been reinstated and given proper compensation.

Now dissatisfied with the decision of the Industrial Court, which also granted him three months’ salary compensation of P153,015, Moumakwa has appealed the decision at the Court of Appeal (CoA) on grounds that the lower court erred by not ordering a reinstatement when none of the evidence led militated against and/or warranted the non-imposition of his reinstatement.

Moumakwa added that the court also erred in fact and in law in concluding that his relationship with the second respondent, Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency (PEEPA) was no longer tenable, owing to presumably irretrievable damage to trust when there was no evidence based on which the court could reasonably reach such a conclusion.

Moumakwa’s five-year contract was terminated prematurely by the then Minister of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Nonofo Molefhi in October 2019. Before his dismissal, Moumakwa had found himself entangled in several allegations of misconduct including the use and subsequent damage of a company vehicle and unauthorised use of PEEPA’s credit and debit cards in the amount of about P418,000.

“In its consideration of the alternative remedy of compensation to the appellant, the court a quo misdirected itself and erred in fact in, firstly computing the compensation based on an inaccurate monthly salary amount,” Moumakwa highlighted his dissatisfaction with the compensation that was ordered by the Industrial Court.

Moumakwa feels that P153,015 is a patently unreasonable compensation amount. He emphasised that the court erred in considering itself limited in the absence of a demonstration of exceptional circumstances to an award of compensation falling within the equivalent of one to six months’ basic salary range.

In the relief he is now seeking from the CoA, Moumakwa wants the latter to reinstate him to his erstwhile employment position at PEEPA.

He also wants appropriate compensation, the measure of which shall be recomputed by the CoA, and which compensation shall, in any event, be equivalent to an amount not less than six months of the basic month salary he previously earned under the employ of PEEPA.