LEWIS STORES MANAGER FIRED OVER ‘KING’S SOFA’

MBABANE – A sofa that was allegedly provided by Lewis Stores to be used by the King resulted in a manager being dismissed from work.

Watson Njabulo Mthembu, who was based at the Siteki Branch of the furniture shop, is now accused of having provided the ‘sofa-senator’ for the use of the King without the authority of his superiors. The King was in Siteki for the official opening of Texland Garments Factory on October 28, 2004 when the incident happened.

He is alleged to have refused to go and fetch the sofa after the ceremony, and this resulted in him being taken to a disciplinary hearing.
The company accused Mthembu of bringing the company’s name into disrepute, in that he allegedly falsely informed the divisional general manager of the shop that a one seat sofa, which was borrowed by the Lubombo Regional Administrator (RA), was taken by the King, yet he allegedly gave the sofa to the RA as a gift.

As a result, the company was blaming the King’s Office and the King’s name was wrongly dragged into the matter.
The dispute between the parties is said to have began after the management of the shop started to demand the return of the sofa. 

Mthembu is said to have told management that anything given to the King was never returned or taken back. He is further alleged to have stated that he had given the sofa to the King and not loaned it. However, the management was seemingly not content with his explanation and this resulted in him being taken to a disciplinary hearing, where he was found guilty and subsequently dismissed.

“Respondent (Lewis Stores) previously issued its stock for the purpose of utilisation by the King, applicant (Mthembu) stated something issued to the King was never returned,” submitted David Lugebane Shongwe, who was the store’s Regional Manager.

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