By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE:Sthofeni Ginindza, the Eswatini Observer Board Chairman has been served with a letter of demand by Robinson Bertram attorneys and, the lawyers are demanding compensation after the alleged unlawful dismissal of Managing Director Alan Mkhonta.

Worth-noting, Mkhonta is the same Eswatini Observer Managing Director who attempted to discipline employees allegedly involved in fraud and corruption within the Tibiyo TakaNgwane owned newspaper. 

But the Managing Director was first placed on special leave by the Board and subsequently, his contract was through a letter dated 5th July 2025, terminated without compensation and/or in gross violation of the principles of substantive and procedural fairness.

The principles of substantive and procedural fairness require that for an employee's dismissal to be fair, there must be a valid and justifiable reason and, the employer must have followed a fair process to arrive at the dismissal decision.

Substantive fairness focuses on "what" happened, ensuring there was a proper justification for the dismissal, such as proven misconduct.

On the other hand, procedural fairness focuses on "how" it happened, ensuring the employee was treated justly and given a fair opportunity to respond before an employer reached the dismissal decision.

As a result, the State controlled newspaper might be forced to pay the dismissed Managing Director over R2million as per the unlawfully terminated contract and, being monies or salaries he could have earned until February the 29th February 2029.

“In terms of this letter, you have communicated to our client that his services are terminated with effect from the 5th July 2025. The communication comes unexpectedly by our client as he has not been charged and/or disciplined for any acts of misconduct by the company. In our law this is an invalid and/or unfair termination of his services and our client reserves the right to challenge same at the Industrial Court,” reads the letter of demand in part. 

But in the same the letter of demand, the reputable law-firm stated that, the Managing Director previously tried without success to engage the Board and, have the matter resolved amicably.

“Our client has tried, without success, to have the issue resolved.It is on that basis that he has not escalated the matter to ourselves for advise and direction on the way forward. Our advise is that the termination of his services are on the facts of the matter unlawful and the Industrial Court can easily set it aside. However, our advise is that it is undesirable that a head of an organisation can take his employer to court not unless there is no willingness on the employer to engage in a mutual separation. Our client’s fixed employment was coming to an end on 29th February 2029. Our client has several months outstanding on his employment contract. The purpose of the present letter is to demand that we meet and see if our client can be paid the balance of his contract period, inclusive of this benefits and gratuity, so that there is a mutual separation,” said the lawyers through the letter.

Reached for comments by this Swaziland News on Friday morning, Sthofeni Ginindza, the Eswatini Observer Board Chairman confirmed the matter but, he said it was under discussion and might be resolved amicably.

“The matter is still under discussion Mlangeni,” said the Eswatini Observer Board Chairman.

Efforts to seek a comment from senior lawyer Zweli Jele of Robinson Bertram proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.

But dismissed Managing Director Alan Mkhonta confirmed to this publication that, he instructed the Robinson Bertram lawyers to handle the matter on his behalf.

“Much as the letter is confidential, I can confirm its authenticity now that you obviously have it. The background to it is that Eswatini Observer ordered me to leave the company with immediate effect following my attempts to discipline an employee over the discovery of multiple and gross acts of fraud and financial misconduct. The order for me to leave the company was communicated through a letter that did not make any sense to me. Whilst at home, I wrote back to Eswatini Observer to engage in a civil manner,” he said.

The dismissed Managing Director further said, after writing a letter to the Swazi Observer Board, the correspondence he received was to the effect that, the newspaper have assigned a lawyer to engage him in this matter.

”I couldn’t understand why I was being referred to a lawyer when I was engaging the authorities directly in their capacity as my legitimate employer. Based on this turn of events, I had no option but to appoint an Attorney to handle the situation on my behalf. For obvious ethical reasons, I am not at liberty to share with you copies of the correspondences I have exchanged with Eswatini Observer,” said the Managing Director.