THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has condemned the move by Cabinet to initiate the closure of Telecel Zimbabwe saying the economy could not sustain unnecessary company closures.
BATANAI MUTASA OWN CORRESPONDENT
ZCTU president George Nkiwane told Southern Eye Business that the closure of any company was a tragedy for the country that carried severe ripple effects to many families surviving directly and indirectly off the firm.
Cabinet this week approved recommendations from the Information Communications Technology (ICT), Postal and Courier Services ministry to close Zimbabwe’s third largest mobile phone network as it was operating without a licence and in breach of indigenisation and empowerment laws.
Although ICT minister Supa Mandiwanzira said in implementing the decision to shut down the company the government would pay attention to the plight of employees and subscribers, Nkiwane argued the best route would have been to avoid the process.
“Our economy should avoid this because we cannot afford it, but it seems political leadership does not care about people,” he said.
“The main objective at the moment should be to revive the many companies which have folded (and) not close more.”
According to the Retrenchment Board, at least 6 960 workers were retrenched in 2014, with further job losses expected at nearly 40 companies currently undergoing either judicial management or liquidation.
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Nkiwane advised the government to engage Telecel shareholders and employees to map out a strategy to save the firm.
Speaking in his personal capacity, Consumer Council of Zimbabwe manager for Matabeleland, Comfort Muchekeza deplored the move by Cabinet.
“The government could be rushing to make statements because in as much as Telecel is a private company, it has many stakeholders,” Muchekeza said.
Telecel has over 2,5 million active subscribers, who Muchekeza said would be unnecessarily alarmed by receiving such information causing panic.
“In any case we have been calling for more competition in the mobile services sector blaming the three providers of monopolistic tendencies and reducing them to two won’t help the situation,” Muchekeza said.
“I believe the government should put the interests of consumers first and explore other ways of punishing those who fail to abide by the laws of the land.
“There should be consideration of issues on the ground, for example, if it is a financial challenge, attempts should be to court new investors and if it is management failing to comply, the government can place a judicial manager to facilitate the procedures.”
