British investor puts Zimbabwe government in a tight spot

Workers believe that someone in the government, especially in the Ministry of Lands, had an interest in the takeover but they ruled out the late minister Perrance Shiri.

The Insider was reliably informed before Shiri’s death on 29 July that he had actually pushed for the review of the agreement and cabinet agreed to do so before he died but there were some modalities that had to be ironed out before the official announcement.

Havercroft was a business partner of Adam Molai who is married to former President Robert Mugabe’s niece.

Although Masuka did not give a timeline on when the government would take over the CSC, he said the government should have new partners early next year.

It is not clear what will happen to workers who accepted the paltry packages as one of the provisions of the agreement said: “The parties further confirm that by signing this agreement, the employee waives all his rights including, but not limited to his right to institute legal proceedings in terms of the Labour Act Chapter 28:1 of 1996, as amended by Act No.5 of 2015”.

It is also not clear how many workers have actually been paid the severance packages as some changed their minds after realizing how small the package was.

Some of the workers, especially those nearing retirement age, were allegedly threatened with early retirement under which they would walk away with a quarter of what they had been offered.

Under the package that the workers signed, their salaries had actually been increased by 400 percent, which meant that they were actually going to get five times what they should have been paid but some of the workers said the package was four times their salary which meant it had gone up by 300 percent and not 400 percent as agreed.

The company also reviewed the severance package by 50 percent at the end of June.

The workers were also supposed to be paid contractual benefits for the three months pending their retrenchment at the end of June. These included accrued leave, three months’ notice, housing and transport allowance.

For the employee with 12 years services, these added up to $4 018 and to $4 103 for the one who had served 41 years.

Allowances for the foreman were nearly $20 000 as these included allowances for tools, airtime and fuel but even then he would have been grossly shortchanged.

The foreman was supposed to get 40 litres of fuel a month but was to be paid $4 692 for the three months to end of June. This is now barely enough for a month’s allowance as $4 692 today buys only 54 litres of diesel and 48 litres of petrol.

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