By Leonard Koni.
Cape Town, South Africa. (News of The South) – ZIMASCO, a unit of China’s Sinosteel Corporation in Kwekwe has one Eastern Wing operating due to poor perfomance of the company which has been attributed by rampant uncontrallable corruption acts.
The operations at its ferro chrome refinery in Kwekwe has the capacity to post good results but some of the employees have expressed some dissappointments on the way they are being treated and if nothing is done to raise a red flag the company will lose some of its workers resulting in lower profits and mass exodus.
Corruption at the plant has become a cancerous disease and prompt action is needed to curb it. The company could have lost thousands of dollars through these under dealings.
Corruption is a form of dishonest or unethical conduct by a person entrusted with a position of authority, often to acquire personal benefit. Corruption may include many activities including bribery and embezzlement, though it may also involve practices that are legal in many countries. Our Government parastatals have nit been spared by this scourge. Corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for is the illegitimate use of public power to benefit a private person.
Currently it’s the East plant which is running for Zimasco and the West is leased to portnex an South African Company
The organization at the moment is understaffed in the plant henceforth the students on attachment are the ones doing the job but are not getting paid and sometimes work without ‘PPE’ Personal Protective Equipment which is according to the safety rules is a prerequisite and must be given to every worker.
One of the workers name withheld said that the company has been making sound profit throughout the year because of the help of these students who are not paid at all and are taken advantage of. He went on to say that it was through the hard work and the help of these students but they were subjected to see the profits made by the company as reported by newspapers.
There are related cases of corruption at the company where the Human Resources has been employing his relatives who are under qualified for some jobs.
There was a time in 2015 where Zimasco was allegedly affected by issues pertaining to environmental issues and one Samuel Madamba gave some private information to Portnex which is renting the Zimasco westplant furnaces.
The information was on environmental issues such that the company paid lots of money to EMA as fine and it had been subjected to a shut down. However with such kind of offence as per the procedures he could have been fired but he got protection from the Human Resources manager and was only given a warning. Alternatively minor offences have been done by other employees and have been fired.
It is also believed that Madamba’s position at the company as the Safety Health & Environmental officer is not by virtue qualified for that position but was promoted based on him being related to the Human Resources manager. According to the source he is rather a low level diesel plant fitter.
The source said one would find scenarios where the company could fire people on incidents that where mistakenly done and without going through a labour tribunal hearing.
It is alleged that the Human Resources manager has shares in a company called Wildlooks which was operating within the set up and was contracted to do all the maintance work.
There has been a complete overhaul of the executive right with new faces coming on board the likes of General Manager Mr Chitambira, Human Resources manager Mr Tinago, Finance & Administration manager Mr Tazvinga and Cost Accountant Mr Mhonde have been suspended pending investigations. This has emanated from some tip offs with regards to conflict of interest. Grant Thornton is currently carrying out investigations.
Meanwhile Mr Chitiki will be the Acting General Manager, Mr Manyau will be acting Human Rrsources manager and Mr Alex Mutendera from Harare will be Acting Finance & Administration manager respectively.
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