Boardroom squabbles hit BBT

A local non-profit making organisation, Beautiful Bulawayo Trust (BBT), has been rocked by boardroom squabbles and administrative issues amid fears this may lead to the collapse of the organisation.

This follows threats of mass resignations by board and trustee members.

BBT was founded in 2019 with the objective to bring and drive investment in Bulawayo.

According to an internal correspondence that was leaked to our Bulawayo Bureau dated April 10, 2020 addressed to the trust’s members, BBT former chairman Jabulani Sibanda said:

“The board will submit itself to the audit process requested by the founding trustee (Mr Darlington Nyika) for the sake of clarity and transparency.

“Just as Mr Nyika made a request to have the board audited, other trustees made their submissions before the board levelling very serious allegations against him.”

Among others, the BBT founder is accused of unilaterally appointing an audit firm without going through the board as well as using threats against the board members and lashing out at trustees.

The BBT board believes this was inconsistent with the values of the organisation.

It is further alleged that Mr Nyika was using their organisation’ social media platform to attack the trustees and members and removing other administrators of the said forum as a means of control.

In light of the above issues, Mr Nyika was called by the board for hearings and to make his own submissions but he refused to comply.

“The evidence produced against Mr Nyika was overwhelming and the board sought to remedy this by suspending him from all trust business pending a hearing to be held within 30 days.

“All these decisions were made in accordance with the Trust Deed and to preserve the integrity of BBT and its structures as there were now mass resignations emanating from the allegations,” reads part of the correspondence.

Mr Sibanda indicated the BBT board works through formal structures so as to protect the integrity of its constituent members who were appointed on merit and their good standing in society.

“We need to remember that the objectives of the trust are driven through its trustees and board and if the board fails to protect the integrity of trustees then trustees will not be able to carry out their duties,” he said.

Mr Sibanda pointed out that the organisation’s board was made up of “very” accomplished trustees who have built their reputations outside of BBT and were called into the organisation to assist.

“As mentioned there were now mass resignations from the board which would have compromised the operations of the trust.”

In an interview, BBT chief executive officer Mr Victor Mhondera, described the organisation’s founder as a bit disillusioned about the same institution that he founded.

He said when Mr Nyika reached out to the public while forming BBT, the initiative became a collective effort with a buy-in from the community.

“We now probably have the first most important transaction in this Covid- 19 campaign.

“And for some strange reason, out of the blue, we have a founding member who is now within the structure of a registered trust as an ordinary trustee who then decides to start shooting from the hip behaving like a bull, casting aspersions and innuendos that the approach and manner in which the campaign was being run smacked of malicious impropriety with regards to handling of funds,” said Mr Mhondera.

“This wasn’t a necessary thing because he is also a member of the executive.”

Mr Mhondera indicated that BTT was at the moment technically invalid because most of the members have stated their intention to resign.

“If you look at the laws that govern trusts and companies, there is due process even in the resignation process, so most of those resignations have not come full cycle, but the fact that most of the members have indicated the intention to resign, it’s a severe blow to the trust,” he said.

The squabbles that have marred BBT boardroom came at a time when the trust had embarked on an initiative to raise resources in support of the fight against Covid-19 in the city.

Commenting on the progress made in trying to raise Covid-19 donations, he said the campaign was immensely successful and the point at which it was derailed, over $700 000 in cash and kind through the Forex Trading School Africa chief trading officer Mr Kuda Manzanga had been raised.

Mr Mhondera said through Mr Manzanga’s influence, the Small-to-Medium Millers Association of Zimbabwe stepped on board with 30 tonnes of maize meal valued at $600 000.

“Through his forex trading network, he had been able to secure $120 000 and the cheque had literary just been signed.

“The person (Mr Manzanga) who was only handling donations received via his merchant line, was also turning out to be the major sponsor and that is the same person the founder starts pointing a finger at to say he is trying to embezzle US$300 (equivalent of $13,149 received through the merchant line),” he said.

This paper is reliably informed that because BBT does not have an EcoCash merchant code, the trust had resolved to use the Forex Trading School Africa’s merchant code which received $$13,149 for Covid-19 donations.

In line with humanitarian support to Covid-19, an additional $5 000 was deposited into BBT’s bank account.

Last week, $3 000 was officially withdrawn from the said merchant code account and donated to the Minister of State for Bulawayo Provincial Affairs’ office in support of the private sector initiative in the fight against the global pandemic in the city.

A detailed EcoCash merchant statement was submitted to the board and was happy and showed no other money had been used and all was above board.

“It was quite off-putting to insinuate that there would have been any misappropriation of $13 149 from the very person who had himself donated 3 000 face masks worth over $120 000.

The board as well as the trustees found Mr Nyika’s actions to be grossly inappropriate,” said Mr Mhondera.

Efforts to get a comment from Mr Nyika were futile as he refused to speak to this paper.

“I would suggest you approach the secretary of the board to the trust (Engineer Catherine Mkhandla) pertaining to that issue because she is handling all the purported allegations and all that.

“I can’t go before the Press at the present moment because the issue is still to be dealt in-house.

“I will be able to make a public statement once we go through the entire process,” he said.

Eng Mkhandla said she cannot comment on the matter before referring the questions again to Mr Nyika.

“I think you have to speak to Mr Nyika directly sir, unfortunately, I cannot comment on that,” she said.