As a shareholder and insurance policy holder of Old Mutual Plc I am requesting the Chairman Trevor Manuel and the board directors of Old Mutual Plc to immediately resign and call for an EGM for the shareholders to immediately chose a new board that understands the labour relations act and follow corporate governance by the book.

When a Chair and the board directors behave badly, the consequences for the organization is swift, severe and long-lasting. In the case of Old Mutual the share price has lost 27% of its value and believe we will lose more has the legal battle continues. Misconduct by Chair and his board directors, now we don’t know if this was intentional or unintentional but it still points to the facts that they failed to follow the basics Labour Relations Act of South Africa.

Its now 3 months since Peter Moyo was fired and reinstated. According to Old Mutual they fired Moyo using the South African clause 24.4.1 of the Labour Relations Act, to immediately fire him without going through the due process of a disciplinary hearing. Old mutual has since lost the case with Judge Brian Mashile saying Old Mutual incorrectly applied clause 24.4.1 of the Labour Relations Act, the law that allowed it to fire Moyo without affording him a disciplinary hearing.

In his case Peter Moyo claimed that Trevor Manuel the Old mutual Chairman did not pay due diligence to corporate governance during the firing process. He further exposed that 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 further elaborated that the Old Mutual Chairman suspended him after he raised concern that the insurance company paid for Manuel’s legal fees in his court battle to access information from Gupta owned Sahara Computers.

He went further to say Old Mutual had failed to undertake disciplinary proceedings against him, which violates labour law claiming the board of Old Mutual did not follow due process in releasing him and has asked the South African courts to reinstate him as CEO. He also requesting that the chairman and directors be declared “delinquent directors.”

With these allegations allegation before the courts Old Mutual has lost its court case.

These are serious corporate governance violations. What Moyo exposed is that the Old Mutual Chair and the board of directors had failed to meet fiduciary duties, this means they failed to meet their duty of care, duty of loyalty and duty of obedience.

Faced with these facts as a shareholder there is no doubt that the chairman and the he Board directors decided to put their own personal interests above the interests of the Old Mutual when they were conducting business. The Chair and the board directors are held to a higher standard of behavior because they hold a position of greater responsibility in one of the biggest companies in Africa. They should be above unethical behavior both inside and outside of the boardroom.

Engineer Jacob Kudzayi Mutisi

Old Mutual Shareholder