THE country’s largest chrome mining and smelting company, Zimasco, has offered its 600 retrenched workers residential stands as exit packages.
BY BLESSSED MHLANGA
The chrome company dismissed 624 of its workforce using the July Supreme Court judgement that allowed employers to terminate contracts by giving them three months’ notice.
The company also offered the workers another two weeks’ salary per every year served and other severance benefits.
However, due to the liquidity crunch obtaining in the country, Zimasco decided to dispose most of its assets to pay off the fired workers.
Senior employees were offered the company houses which they were staying in at 5% discount of market prices. Lower rank employees were offered residential stands in the low-density suburbs of Kwekwe.
Zimasco has vast tracts of land in the leafy suburbs of Hezeldina and Kelston, Hillandale and Golden Valley, among other areas in Kwekwe.
Many workers have taken up the stands, some with the hope of reselling them and getting quick cash, while others are said to be considering developing them.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Some of the former workers who may not have enough money to purchase the stands, have entered into private agreements with each other to collectively buy, subdivide and share the stands among themselves.
An internal schedule seen by The Standard shows that some of the workers that were sent home managed to get sizeable stands, with the smallest stand measuring 2 000 square metres.
The schedule shows Zimasco is selling the stands to its former workers at $8 per square metre before offering a discount.
A former worker who spoke on condition he was not named, said most of his peers had opted to take the land or any other property offered by Zimasco because it was a quicker way of getting remuneration.
“The company made it clear that they won’t make one lump sum deposit of the package, but will pay over a period stretching to over a year. For someone who has been fired, you would want your money in one batch so that you can invest in your future.
The stands and housing deals offer that reality,” said one of the former workers. Some of the workers who had been with the company for more than 15 years and had their own houses, refused to take the land or property saying they wanted cash.
“If I take the land, I won’t have money to develop it. Due to the cash crunch, selling it will be a nightmare, so I would rather wait for my cash,” said another former worker.
Attempts to get a comment from Zimasco were fruitless as emails sent to Clara Sadomba, the general manager marketing and administration, who is also company spokesperson, had not been responded.
