The government, through the ministry of Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, gave Zimplats, along with British American Tobacco, Nestle, Cargill, Barclays and Standard Chartered a 14 day ultimatum to come up with acceptable plans after their initial proposals were rejected.
Workers, however, are set to lose the most if Minister of Indigenisation Saviour Kasukuwere threat to cancel the operating licenses of companies such as Zimplats is carried out.
Zimplats currently employs 4 000 workers, including contractors. Projections were that the mega rich company that is exploiting platinum group of metals estimated at US$4 billion would in the next two years employ 6 000 people and 10 000 by 2016.
In an interview, Lovemore Matombo, the President of a fractured Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, said that indigenisation had been hijacked by a political party and its members and not the workers were set to benefit the most.
“We need to understand that the whole process is highly political and appeals to benefiting politicians from a certain political party. If it would benefit the people then the first beneficiaries would be the workers. The cancelation is ridiculous as far as we are concerned and we condemn the government’s insensitivity to workers,” said Matombo.
Post published in: News