Court orders Macra to reinstate deputy boss Bisika within 3 days

The High Court in Blantyre has ordered Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) to respect its order and reinstate  deputy director general Francis Bisika within three days, his lawyer Chancy Gondwe has confirmed to Nyasa Times.

Gondwe said judge Jack N’riva made the order as the regulator has not been respecting the court to reinstate Bisika since it rejected its request to vacate the permission for judicial review and an injunction  the deputy director of Macrca obtained to preserve his employment contract.

Bisika obtained the court order to restrain government from dictating Macra on his contract.

“The court has issued an order that MACRA should resitate Bisika within three days. We expect them to respect court orders. If they act  in defiance, we will go back to couryt to seek contempt proceedings,” Gondwe said.

Gondwe said nobody should be  acting larger than life or above the law  and expects Macra bos Godfrey Itaye to ensure Bisika is back to work as directed by the court.

The court gave Bisika relief after Macra allegedly withdrew his contract barely two weeks after Macra’s extraordinary board meeting renewed the same.

However, Macra rushed to the court to have the orders set aside arguing, among others, that there was no named defendant to the proceedings as required by law.

In its fourfold grounds, Macra also argued that there were no proceedings started before the court with a mode of commencement known to the law; that the proceedings were so defective that the court’s coercive force was wrongfully procured and; that the proceedings were so defective that the defendant was embarrassed to respond to.

But the court said despite not correctly naming the defendant, the applicant disclosed a case that was fit for further investigation at a full hearing of judicial review.

Judge Mike Tembo ordered the applicant to accordingly make necessary amendments.

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