DISMISSED Letshego Group chief executive officer (CEO) Andrew Okai has dragged the pan-African microlender to court in Gaborone, Botswana, to get his job back.
Letshego Holdings, which has offices in 11 African countries, including in Namibia where it runs a commercial bank, is defending its decision.
According to extensive reports carried in the Botswana publication The Business Weekly & Review, the estranged Ghanaian banker is claiming unfair dismissal and wants the Botswana Industrial Court to declare it unlawful.
Details have emerged that behind the dismissal of Okai is a substantial, multimillion-pula transaction that would have seen Letshego’s controlling stake being sold to a foreign company, had Okai not ‘blocked’ the transaction.
Okai’s lawyers also want the matter to be heard on an urgent basis “before their client suffers more prejudice”.
Okai landed the Letshego Holdings CEO job in January 2020 on a five-year term, and still had three years left on his contract at the time of his dismissal early this month.
The Letshego Holdings board cited “an irreparable breakdown in trust and confidence between the two parties” as the reason for Okai’s dismissal, but did not elaborate on the statement at the time.
It has, however, emerged in court papers submitted by the independent director of the Letshego Group, Gloria Somolekae, that the dispute between Okai and the board centred on an expression of interest to acquire the majority of shares in the group by a third party – Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited – in which South Africa’s premier financial services company, Sanlam Life Insurance, has a controlling stake.
According to Sololekae, acrimonious differences over the procedure to follow emerged between Okai and the board, with the group CEO taking part in engagements which the board regarded as a conflict of interest and insubordination as they were allegedly not authorised.
As a result the takeover did not happen, and this led to the breakdown in trust between the parties, which in turn led to Okai’s dismissal, Sololekae submitted in her court papers.
Judge Isaac Bahuma, who presided over the case, has reserved judgement on hearing the case as an urgent matter.
Email: matthew@namibian.com.na
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