By SYLVESTER MWALE –

FORMER Standard Chartered Bank Zambia managing director Mizinga Melu has been embroiled in the controversy at SOS Children’s Village after being accused of influencing the decision to engage her relative as national director early this year.

There are fears that the confusion could paralyse operations of the international organisation which has witnessed infighting between senior managers and the new director who has since dismissed three of them.

Mrs Melu, who is currently chief executive officer of the National Bank of Commerce in Tanzania, was a board member when SOS Children’s Village hired Bwalya Melu, her brother-in-law based in the United States (USA) then.

When contacted during the week, Mrs Melu refused to say anything on the accusations and referred all queries to board chairperson Geoffrey Chipota.

It is understood that Mr Melu was not even aware about the job advertisement and his application and curriculum vitae (CV) were lodged in by his sister-in-law beyond the deadline for submitting the applications.

Although Mrs Melu had declared interest prior to the recruitment, she took part in interviewing other candidates, an action that might have disadvantaged the other candidates.

Then Education permanent secretary James Mulungushi, now deceased, and former Science, Technology and Vocational Training permanent secretary Paul Zambezi were among notable candidates that were allegedly disadvantaged.

“Firstly, the confusion at this institution has been caused by the way Mr Melu was recruited,” said one of the workers. “While he may be a qualified man for the job, there was nepotism in his recruitment which workers did not support.

“Secondly, his leadership has been poor in that he has said that he will fire anyone and no one will reprimand him because he is the boss, and this is happening.”

At least five employees have been fired from SOS Children’s Village since March this year when Mr Melu was recruited but the board chairperson, Mr Chipota, defended the decision to dismiss the employees.

SOS deputy national director, Mwamba Mutale, human resource manager, Victor Lolozi and acting financial controller Clarence Mwami were fired during the week on flimsy charges.

Former SOS Village Kitwe director Victor Chileshe was dismissed for using a phrase ‘reports should be sexy’ in a women-dominated staff meeting as well as recognising the fact that differences were inevitable in any organisation.

But Mr Chipota said: “Firstly, Mrs Melu had no influence in the recruitment of Mr Melu because she had declared interest and there was nothing wrong for her to interview other candidates.

“You must also be aware that there were four people on the panel, including a gentleman from our regional office who is a human resource expert and there was no way all these others could have been influenced by one individual.”

He also denied that Mrs Melu submitted the application letter on behalf of her relative who was in the USA.

According to documents obtained by the Sunday Times, five managers had asked for mutual separation from the organisation, citing unfriendly environment between managers and the national director.

But three of them were dismissed after an investigation was instituted and found them guilty of various offences.

Apart from the trio, another two employees – one from Livingstone and the other from Lusaka – have also been dismissed for allegedly challenging the decisions by Mr Melu.