Fired Moyo fires back at Old Mutual

● Fired Old Mutual CEO Peter Moyo wants his job back, accusing chairperson Trevor Manuel of spearheading his dismissal, according to papers filed in the high court in Johannesburg on Friday.

Moyo also wants Old Mutual to stop the process of appointing a new leader because he wasn’t given a hearing, he said in court documents.

Old Mutual is aware of the urgent application due to be heard on July 16, as well as Moyo’s request to be temporarily reinstated, and will oppose the application, it said in an e-mailed response to questions.

It declined to comment further, including on issues related to Manuel.

Earlier this month, the insurer terminated Moyo’s employment for what it said was a “material breakdown in trust and confidence”.

Manuel, who helped oversee SA’s longest period of economic growth as finance minister until he stepped down in 2009, said in May that Moyo had been suspended because a conflict of interest had become “unmanageable and untenable”.

At the centre of the boardroom battle is investment firm NMT Capital, which was founded by Moyo and two others in 2002, and the late payment of preferenceshare dividends to Old Mutual.

The insurer had bought 20% of NMT, which earned it a seat on NMT’s board, and an agreement was put in place to handle the relationship when Moyo was appointed CEO in 2017.

Old Mutual’s representative on NMT’s board had ratified all the firm’s decisions and had never raised any concerns over a conflict of interest, Moyo said in the filings.

“It became clear to me that Mr Manuel was strongly spearheading the suggestion that I had acted contrary to the provisions of the protocol,” Moyo said. “I explained that this was decidedly not so.”

He wants insurer to stop the process of appointing a new leader