The ZBC board has threatened former CEO Adelaide Chikunguru to either shut up or face legal action withing 48 hours. I will now read the full statement for you.
12 march 2024
Press Statement
1. On the 28th of February 2024, the board of the ZBC suspended the CEO, Adelaide Chikunguru. The board did not make public details of the allegations against her.
3. On the 1st of March, she resigned and thus closed the door on an independent and impartial investigation of the allegations. The hearing panel would have consisted of a retired judge of the supreme court and two senior legal practitioners, each of more than twenty years standing. The presenter of evidence would have been a senior advocate in private practice.
4. Thereafter the former CEO has resorted to social media to suggest that charged were trumped up in pursuit of a personal and politicised agenda by certain named individuals. Privileged documents of the Corporation have been made public and out of context, to drive a misleading narrative that has caused immeasurable reputational and financial prejudice.
5. Her social Media statements, whilst apparently targeted at specific individuals, have scandalised the ZBC and its board. Specifically, the suggestion is that the board has abdicated its fiduciary duty to the corporation and is acting at the whim of the Minsister and the chairperson. The suggestion is made further. that the ZBC s unable to meet its obligations to key stakeholders, name dripping has been central in this sustained and unmitigated assault on the board, the ZBC and its key stakeholders.
6. The board registers its grave concern with the sustained, protracted, unmitigated and continuing onslaught on the corporation, its key stakeholders and the associated reputational risk.
7. The publicly asserts its fiduciary responsibility to the corporation and takes strong exception to her insinuations that it has abdicated its fiduciary obligations and oversight role over the affairs of the corporation.
8. The board publicly asserts that the narration regarding its capacity to meet its obligations to both internal and external stakeholders is false and has no basis whatsoever.
9. The board re assures its valued stakeholders that the ZBC remains committed to its core mandate within the dictates of sound corporate governance. The board will remain focused on what it has to do in the public interest.
10. The board makes it categorically clear that at no time did Ms. Chikunguru raise with the board, as she should have done, what she is now raising in the public domain.
11. The board advises Ms. Chikunguru to pursue her claims, if any, through due process of the law and notes her continued suggestion that her lawyers have been briefed. The board publicly states tat there is no substance in the allegations against the board and the ZBC. To this end, the board invites her to execute her threats of resort to the law against the ZBC within the next 48 hours. In the event that she does not do so, the board reserves the right to approach the High court for a decree of perpetual silence calling upon her to bring the the threatened legal action or forever keep her peace. This decision is necessary to protect the continuing harm that the ZBC’s interests and those of its stakeholders.
12. The board wishes to emphasise that her resignation has not ended the investigation of the issues that led to her suspension. She will be made to account in terms of the law in terms of any loss, potential of real, of assets or of other forms of prejudice that the ZBC may have suffered because of her alleged misconduct. neither her resignation nor her media statements will stop or derail the board from completing its investigation and taking the necessary legal steps to protect the ZBC ‘s interests and recover any value or assets.
13. The board reserves the right to protect and preserve the integrity of its confidential documents and to protect the ZBC and its valued shareholders to the fulest extent permissible by the law.
By order of the board.
End
