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The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg will rule on Tuesday on former Old Mutual CEO Peter Moyo’s urgent application to be reinstated and for his dismissal to be declared unlawful and unconstitutional.
The decision will be handed down at 14:00. Moyo approached the court on July 18 in Part A of his application. His legal team told Judge Brian Mashile that he was suspended in May and later fired from the blue-chip insurer in June, because he was a whistle-blower who revealed conflicts of interest in the firm related to chairperson Trevor Manuel.
He claimed that Manuel did not pay due diligence to corporate governance. Manuel also chaired Rothschild & Co which oversaw Old Mutual plc delist from the London Stock Exchange and list as Old Mutual Limited on the JSE in June 2018 in a “Managed Separation”.
Moyo’s legal team advanced that he was suspended after the raised concern that the insurance company paid for Manuel’s legal fees in his court battle to access information from Gupta owned Sahara Computers.
Another argument for re-instatement made by Moyo’s legal team was that Old Mutual had failed to undertake disciplinary proceedings against him, which violates labour law.
Conflict of interest accusations
Old Mutual’ s legal team, however, argued that it was Moyo who had a conflict of interest. They cited the reason for his suspension and later axing for failing to pay the insurance company and institutional investor, dividends from NMT Capital, a company he co-founded.
The court heard that he failed to protect shareholder value while he was CEO. The insurer further questioned why Moyo had signed off on the financial statements by auditors which included Manuel’s legal fees. Old Mutual maintains that Manuel recused himself when the discussion took place about Rothschild & Co overseeing the multi-billion "Managed Separation".
Old Mutual told Judge Mashile that even if Moyo’s dismissal is found to be unlawful, re-instating him remains at the discretion of the court and if he returns to his position, the company will be the “ultimate loser” due to the breakdown in relations between him and the board.
Tuesday’s judgment is only Part A of Moyo’s legal battle against his former company. Part B of his application, intended to be set in motion within 60 days of the outcome of Tuesday’s ruling will see him lodge a damages claim for reputational harm. He also wants the court to declare the Old Mutual board "delinquent directors" which will prevent them from holding non-executive directorship positions for several years.
