Innscor Africa regional director Leighton Shaw, has been ordered by the Lusaka Boma court to pay his employee K3 million for calling him a kaffir.
Magistrates Marble Mwaba, Petland Mwansa and Lazarus Mwape ordered Shaw, 42, to pay George Tembo, 32, the money as compensation because of the derogatory language he used on Mr Tembo.
But Shaw said the reason he was dragged to court was not because of using the derogatory term but that he had suspended Mr Tembo from work.
He said he had never uttered the word Kaffir but that the plaintiff had a grudge against him because he stole some money as well as taking company property.
“The reason I have been dragged to court is because of the fact that I accused him of stealing K1.8million from the company’s safe and not because I called him a kaffir,” he said.
But Mr Tembo maintained that Shaw referred to him as Kaffir and that the incident happened barely two months after two senior personnel from INNSCOR were deported to their countries of origin.
He said the company’s top individuals had a reputation of abusing employees and something had to be done to help the employees.
The magistrates said they were convinced that the defendant had used abusive language which prompted them to find him guilty of the offence and mete out the judgment.
Magistrate Mwaba said the amount was even smaller because the language was so derogatory and was known to refer to Africans in the apartheid era.
When reporting, let us please distinguish between local court justices and magistrates. I have lately seen this misreporting creeping into stories all over the place. Editors, let us guide youngsters please!
point of correction, they are no longer local court justices now, they are magistrates since last year if am not mistaken
viva judiciary!! please continue protecting our citizens. we cannot be mistreated by foreigners in our own country. chalo chesu
What’s with all this abuse by foreign managers against Zambian workers? Surely, our labour laws need a serious evaluation. These foreign bosses do whatever they please, whenever they can with no remorse whatsoever. Where is Kambwili in cases like this one? Am sick and tired of hearing about Zambian workers being abused and/or taken advantage of by their supervisors or bosses who are foreigners anyway. In most of these cases, a fine is not just good enough. Why not revoke whatever work permit the accused holds and deported if found guilty??? Am I the only one who feels this way? Really?
It’s time our Zambian courts set an example to these foreign bosses working in Zambia.
It’s too much now. Am sick of this s.h.i.t.
Umupondo #3, I feel your frustration, too. I think one of the problems we have in Zed is we wait for the worst scenario to unfold before acting. This kind of abuse has indeed been going on for a long time and it is only because there is now a rise in instant justice brigades that the courts are suddenly waking up to stamp this out. Remember that the deported guys tried to do the “old” act of bribing their way to stay but were overruled mainly by public pressure!!!
Kalok#4, you are spot.
Kalok#4, you are spot on. you have hit the nail on the head.
‘Magistrate Mwaba said the amount was even smaller’……so why charge that ‘smaller’ amount?? Deport the guy!!
TIS IS THE PERSON TO BE DEPORTED AND NOT PAMODZI GENERAL MANAGER
#1. Masangalatoni. The term ‘local court justice’ was done away with a year or so ago. Everybody at that level and a level above is now a magistrate.
In the UK this would be a serious criminal offense. The fine would reflect the person’s wealth – not just K3m. You might even be imprisoned.
Wenye baba. Ni bani amangiwa?
Miscarriage of justice. This case doesn’t even seem to have been collaborated. It is a case of he said and he said!
just pay you chap..go back to your country if you feel unhappy..
The penalty is too little for importing South African culture illegally
If these racists are allowed to get away by paying paltry sums for heinous crimes as calling another human being kaffir, we will see an in this type of abuse. If he had called the president the same name he would by now have been deported already. The penalty doesn’t fit the crime, only K3m! The man should have been jailed with hard labour, fined and then deported.
This is why i will never employ Zambians.
Any worker can say he was called names without evidence.
You can pay them correctly but after you see them become greedy and steal from the company there i no legal way of dealing with them.
I would rather hire indians and chinese who know they must work to stay in Zambia.
@15 Don’t lie, unless you are Guilty, these foreign managers truly abuse Zambians, including some Indian shop owners. What I can say is that this problem has been caused by we ZAMBIANS we treat Foreigners like they are our GOD. You find that we treat fellow Zambians worse and very bad than these Foreigner that come to live in our Country like Kings. WAKE UP ZAMBIANS. Start having your Own self-respect for your fellow Citizens. See what happens at the AIRPORT RUBISH all those passport controllers rush for foreigners to make some little cash?? You are all MUZUNGU Anikonde. Stop the Nonsense and Embrace your own. GOOD THAT THIS FOOL WAS CHARGED.
I wouldn’t accept the money but rather ask the court to allow me slap-the-mother-f#$k, no one will call me such, and we end in court in clean clothes. Tembo should be the one paying for assaulting that Boer. I think ama Zambians tabakwata fye amaka mwee.
OMG the same company that fires zambian ladies for being pregnant and person who are HIV positive. abusing zambians racially and all he gets is K3m fine. awe Innscor Zambia limted who owns Galitos, pizza inn and on the run shops. we zambians should boycott these businesses and not support them again.
Congratulations George Tembo for speaking out and suing the shaw man. They make lots of profits here because Zambians are big buyers of their pizzas and all. In-fact for the next one year, no buying pizza from Innscor!
What the person did is not right however at the same point having people specify and use equally wrong racist language (Indians, whites etcs) shows the general mindset of you commentators being Jealous in some form. In the UK how many when has a blackman ever gotten a fair trial when those skin heads use worse language? It is ironic a person who is not black says something and its is construed as racist. Go to the malls in lusaka and hear how many locals call themselves the N word. Its is truely amazing. And when you ask them not to they say Iwe mwenyeh this is my country you are a foreigner when i was born in the same UTH as the rest. The founding father called for tolerance and non violence yet zambians today loose the meaning of those words in totality.
This is a case of I said, he said. How can one prove that the word Kaffir was even uttered?
I’m sorry but this whole story sounds like it was made up. It’s high time employees grow up and take some responsibility for their actions. Having worked in the retail industry before, I am pretty much clued up on how many employees operate, especially when it comes to foreigners whether the manager is black, brown or white. This so called abuse or mistreatment does not even deserve to be called as such.
A few weeks ago, Spar Chipata lost a prized black Zimbabwean employee who was deported on flimsy grounds, after some pressuring from fellow employees who felt he was big thorn to the operations of their little insider theft ring.
A few years back, it was Don MacDonald in the dock as MD of Mica. This is the same man who has adopted more than 5 street children. There are just too many examples I can’t think of now.
This is one big reason why this country will not develop. Nowadays, it has become a crime so as to even raise your voice to an employee if you are a foreigner, lest you get deported, jailed, or fined for ‘insulting the president’ This judgement will just give other workers more courage to do whatever they want, and get away scott-free, as they will always use the “I was insulted/abused/mistreated card”
Your website won’t show up correctly on my blackberry – you might wanna try and repair that