The company said it will offer the following retrenchment package:
- 2 weeks for each year served
- 3 months’ notice
- Accrued Leave due
It advised all employees given notice to meet at the CSC boardroom tomorrow, 6 February.
Ironically, under the agreement for Boustead Beef to take over the CSC, the company was supposed to:
- raise and invest a minimum of US$130 million into CSC over five years, being for both capital expenditures and working capital for the business;
- pay off CSC financial debts totalling US$42 530 597;
- pay rentals of US$100 000 per annum during the first five years of the concession agreement;
- take over and run the management of the following CSC ranches for an initial period of 25 years: Maphaneni; Dubane; Umguza; Chivumbuni; Mushandike; Willsgrove; and Darwendale;
- take over and run the management of the following abattoirs for an initial period of 25 years: Bulawayo; Chinhoyi; Masvingo; Marondera; and Kadoma; and
- take over and manage for an initial period of 25 years, the Harare, Gweru and Mutare distribution centres and residential properties of CSC.
The company has not made any investment so far and although it has been paying workers the paltry wages they are getting, the workers said the money was coming from rentals from CSC properties which Boustead was now collecting.
The Insider started questioning the deal when it discovered that the owner of the so-called British company was actually a former Zimbabwean farmer who had no experience at all in beef, but was a tobacco farmer.
The investigation also showed that the new owner did not have the capital but was looking for investors to put in money.
The new company has, however, received tremendous support from the Ministry of Agriculture and the State-owned media despite its failure to take off.
Instead of bringing relief to workers, some of whom had gone for nearly seven years without salaries, it is firing the workers.
Some of the workers have been with the company for 43 years, but the package they will get will not be enough to buy a single cow as they will be paid a total of less than US$300.
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