The Sunday News
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
The Government has moved in to restore sanity at Ziscosteel amid revelations of mismanagement of resources at the company.
The Government recently appointed Kuvimba Mining House as the project manager to spearhead the resuscitation of the sleeping iron and steel giant.
Kuvimba has since sent a team to the ground to lead the resuscitation process starting with the selling of scrap metal and other available resources to pave the way for the refurbishment and reconstruction of the plant.
According to reports, however, the project management team sent by Kuvimba has been disregarding the Zisco management and board and has not been remitting the funds raised from the sales to the company, choking operations in the process.
Zisco is said to have voluntarily relinquished the company purse to Kuvimba, a decision which backfired as employees have gone for four months without receiving salaries.
The management team has been collecting rentals and selling the scrap and not remitting funds to Zisco rendering the company’s coffers dry and choking operations in the process.
The Kuvimba team also reportedly removed the Zisco security team and replaced them with another security company.
As a result, the board, management and employees petitioned the Government raising alarm over the obtaining situation at the company.
Industry and Commerce Minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, Midlands Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Owen Ncube as well as Redcliff legislator who is also Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare July Moyo visited the company on Friday to get to the bottom of the matter.
Emerging from a closed-door meeting, Minister Ndlovu said they were now alive to the issues the Zisco board and management raised.
“We are now in the picture of the situation here and there are several challenges that we will be addressing going forward particularly to do with the relationship between Zisco and the project management company,” said Minister Ndlovu.
He said they have since ordered the implementation of some stop-gap measures to ensure that things normalise while long-term solutions are being worked out.
“We took some short-term decisions that can alleviate the situation especially to do with non-payment of workers as well as security concerns over assets of the company,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said Zisco should resume control of funds with immediate effect.
“On 20 January 2024, the board rescinded the decision to relinquish control over funds and we ordered that should be expedited so that they can salvage some resources and be able to fulfil the employee obligations that were not met since December,” he said.
He said the looting of assets was worrying.
“We are worried about the security of assets and the company must retain its security. We cannot have management that is not aware of their assets,” said Minister Ndlovu.
He said the Government will engage Kuvimba to listen to their side of the story.
“We have heard what Zisco management has said and we will now engage Kuvimba to hear how best we can improve on the tenets of the agreement. The implementation of the agreement is the major challenge and that has to be addressed,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said an audit will soon be carried out and if anyone is found guilty, they will be prosecuted. “If the audit reveals any illegality, the law will take its course. Those caught on the wrong side of the law should go through the legal processes,” he said.
Zisco folded operations more than a decade ago owing to operational challenges.
