Almost 16 months since Old Mutual sought to end an acrimonious legal battle with Peter Moyo, the saga refuses to go away, reports BusinessLIVE.

As the company accused the former boss of trying to ‘delay finality’ on a case he has already lost, Moyo was back in court, applying to have directors (including chairperson Trevor Manuel) declared delinquents for alleged negligence and wilful misconduct.

In papers filed with the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg), Moyo, who was dismissed in 2019, says he wants 13 current and former non-executive directors of the insurance and investment group jailed for up to six months.

The application, heard yesterday, also wants 16 members of Old Mutual’s board found guilty of contempt for their refusal to allow him to resume duties in accordance with a court ruling after his 2019 dismissal.

Moyo was suspended and dismissed over alleged conflicts of interest related to investment company NMT Capital which he helped found and in which Old Mutual was a 20% shareholder.

He is alleged to have made a decision to pay dividends favouring NMT Capital over Old Mutual’s interests.

Although Moyo contested his dismissal, with Judge Brian Mashile ruling in July 2019 that it was unlawful and that he be reinstated, Old Mutual refused to allow him access to its offices.

The highly publicised spat eventually resulted in victory for Old Mutual, which appealed against Mashile’s decision.

Moyo’s legal counsel, led by Advocates Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, argue that Old Mutual’s court victory against Moyo’s reinstatement does not nullify their alleged contempt of court by refusing to abide by the earlier reinstatement order.

‘The issue is that we are here dealing with one of the most serious, high profile, brazen and continuous cases of contempt of court...,’ Moyo’s legal papers state.

‘A party cannot elect to comply or not to comply with the judgment depending on its view of its correctness.’

Moyo’s legal papers, BusinessLIVE, says, also cite a previous ruling by the Constitutional Court that just because a party’s legal counsel conclude that a court order may be incorrect or invalid, it does not prevent the judiciary from imposing a penalty for disobeying that order to deter future litigants from doing the same.

The papers also accuse Old Mutual’s directors of deliberately trying to drain Moyo of his financial resources to ‘exhaust his capacity to litigate and protect his rights’.

Full BusinessLIVE report