Gov't Ordered To Pay Chimbombi P1.7m
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Monday December 16, 2019 16:26
Lobatse High court judge, Ranier Busang on Thursday ruled in favour of Chimbombi, who will receive P1,710,090.20, a sum, which represents his remuneration that would have been due to him for the balance of his fixed contract of employment. The government has also been ordered to pay the cost of the suit.
Chimbombi, who contested the October general election under the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) ticket, had cited the Attorney General, suspended permanent secretary to the President Carter Morupisi, and former president Ian Khama, as respondents in a court case that began in 2017.
His three-year contract was terminated just after five months in October 2015. In awarding the sum, the court considered his monthly salary of P55,164.20, which was made up of P39,403 as the basic salary, plus 40% scarce skill allowance. His total earnings for 28 months would have totalled P1,544,597.60 while his 65 leave days gave him P165,492.61.
It is said that Morupisi, acting on behalf of Khama, terminated the contract in mutual agreement with Chimbombi. Chimbombi had proposed that he be paid the balance of his contract.
According to court papers, Morupisi had stated in a letter addressed to Chimbombi on October 5, 2015, that he should be paid three months’ salary in lieu of notice, in terms of his contract of employment. In the same letter he further stated that payment of the balance of contract should be addressed separately.
However, he was only paid th e three months’ salary notice, prompting Chimbombi to sue the government for breach of contract. Delivering the judgement, Busang said the defendants obtained Chimbombi’s consent to the mutual separation through undue influence. He stated that they made him believe that the termination would be negotiated on terms that would be amicable, an influence that weakened his position. Justice Busang said the defendants used the influence in an unscrupulous manner in order to prevail over Chimbombi to agree to a mutual separation with the legitimate expectation that he would be paid a separate package over and above his contractual notice pay, when that was never the intention.
The mutual separation was prejudicial to Chimbombi, as the judge said, he was made to lose his job, from which he gained nothing.
“In the exercise of his normal will, the plaintiff would not have agreed to a termination of his employment on payment of notice alone when there was no justification or valid reason for termination,” he said.
Before becoming PS, he had worked for government as a veterinary officer between 1980 and 1994, when he was appointed senior veterinary officer. He was promoted to the position of deputy director veterinary services in 1996 and director veterinary services in 2002. He was appointed permanent secretary in 2008, on permanent and pensionable terms.
In 2012, he was engaged on a three-year contract, which was renewed in 2015. Chimbombi is amongst other UDC election candidates petitioning the Independent Electoral Commission after losing in the 2019 elections.