Mon, 24 Dec 2012 15:10:06 +0000
Radio Mano Members of Staff have downed tools following the expiry of the ultimatum given to the board of trustees to suspend two board members.
On Saturday, the Members of staff gave the board of trustees up to today, 12:00 hours to suspend the duo of Acting Board Chairperson Benson Chibeka, and Elizabeth Matafwali, Chairperson Community Affairs, failure to which operations at the radio station will come to a halt.
And the visibly annoyed Members of staff who held a meeting today maintained that the two embattled board members should step down for gross misconduct and abuse of stations resources.
Earlier in the morning, Radio Mano Station Manager Chrispine Ntalasha was summoned by the Permanent Secretary Hlobotha Nkunika and the District Commissioner Kalanga Bwalya over the matter.
But efforts by the manager to calm down the Members of staff proved futile as they charged that enough is enough adding that they could not be taken for granted.
The Members of staff also threatened to lock the office of the station manager in protest over the matter.
Meanwhile, management has announced that with immediate effect from today, Radio Mano Station will be opening at 08:00 hours and closing at 18:00 hours.
The management has since apologized to its listenership and clients for the inconvenience this will cause.
On Friday last week, the board held a meeting but failed to resolve the concerns raised by the staff in its petition dated 14th December 2012 resulting in today’s strike.
The staff noted that the named duo has continued to interfere in the operations of the radio station.
In the petition, the members of staff observed among others unnecessary meetings, frequent visitation to the station, Misuse of motor vehicles, unnecessary expenditure on tours of listener groups and abuse of station funds by the two named board members.
Meanwhile, the board yesterday suspended the chairperson for Agriculture Machrist Chali to the dissatisfaction of Radio Mano Staff and termed his suspension as a mere scapegoat.
However, the Permanent Secretary Hlobotha Nkunika who earlier persuaded the aggrieved staff through the station manager not to strike saying he will handle the issue has since summoned the board of trustees before his office on Wednesday this week.
