The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
WORKERS at Haddon and Sly Supermarket in Bulawayo are demanding that their employer and businessman Mr Deans Chibhanguza pay them their dues for the past two months and terminate their contracts.
In an interview, chairman of the workers committee, Mr Tapiwa Tafatata Phiri, said workers had agreed to be on two months’ leave while the shop was undergoing renovations.
“We agreed to go on two months’ leave while they were renovating the supermarket and we were to come back on 21 November 2018 and resume operations by 5 December 2018. When we returned we found that all the stocks that were in the shop warehouse had been removed and the company vehicles that we were using were taken away from us,” he said.
Mr Phiri said each day the shop owners come and remove equipment .
“Last week they left with the ice making machine, cash registers and air conditioners that were being used here. We have realised that we are not getting paid, we may as well get our salaries for the past two months and we part ways with the employer. We cannot pay our rentals, buy food or even send our children to school because of this,” he said.
Mr Phiri went on; “We feel we were taken for a ride because he even convinced us not to take leave in December as it is the month where the shop makes a lot of profits but he knew he was not going to open shop anyway. He even said we were going to come and off load groceries that were going to stock up the shop and warehouse but that did not happen.”
When Sunday News spoke to Mr Chibhanguza, initially he said he was closing temporarily to pave way for renovations.
Workers said the shop was iconic in the city having being opened 125 years ago and the businessman was failing to preserve that legacy.
