Redcliff medical centre shut down

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A LEADING Redcliff private hospital Bell Medical Centre has been shut down after the Deputy Sheriff attached its property, including patient bedding and other equipment, over a salary and wage debt.

A LEADING Redcliff private hospital Bell Medical Centre has been shut down after the Deputy Sheriff attached its property, including patient bedding and other equipment, over a salary and wage debt.

BLESSED MHLANGA STAFF REPORTER

Bell Medical Centre, which at its height was the pride of medical facilities in Kwekwe, was shut down for failing to pay its 10 workers a total $54 666,41 in salaries since 2012.

The workers managed to get a writ of execution at the Harare High Court (HC9249/13) on April 23 which saw the Deputy Sheriff move in to attach and remove property from the medical facility leaving it shut. Bell Medical Centre would also have to meet the costs of the suit by its 10 employees who have been battling to get their salaries for the past two years.

“You are required and directed to attach and take into execution the movable goods of Bell Medical Centre (Pvt) Ltd, the above mentioned respondent, of Torwood Hospital and Redcliff Medical Centre, Kwekwe and of same to cause to be realised the sum of $54 666,41 . . .” reads part of the order granted by Justice Joseph Musakwa. Property attached is expected to go under the hammer in the next two weeks if Bell Medical Centre fails to settle its debt.

The collapse of Ziscosteel in Redcliff has seen other downstream businesses fold owing to a dry up in business and disposable income.

Banks, supermarkets and other engineering companies relocated from Redcliff as most residents were left without much disposable income.

Ziscosteel, now known as New Zimsteel, workers who form the majority of residents in Redcliff, have gone for more than 22 months without pay and can therefore not afford basics like food and healthcare.

The government and Essar Africa, however, recently announced that the $750 million Ziscosteel takeover deal signed in 2011 had now been sealed and workers would soon receive their pay breathing hope into the crumbling Redcliff economy.