The workers won an appeal at the Bulawayo High Court to stay in their homes after the mine threatened to throw them out. They are owed thousands of dollars in salary arrears.
Shabani Mine, formerly owned by businessman Mutumwa Mawere, was placed under judicial management in 2004 after introduction of the Reconstruction Act which allowed government to take over companies it deemed insolvent. The legislation was passed just at the time when Mawere had fallen out with Zanu (PF) after he refused to take up a post in the party awarded to him in absentia.
The government claimed the company was insolvent, having failed to settle a huge debt to the power utility, ZESA. Mawere was further accused of “externalising profits” and fraud, allegations he denied.