adminThis is because in every commercial entity, workers are the backbone and play a pivotal role in the success or downfall of that company so there is a need for these workers to also have a larger say in the way the company is run.
Over the past few weeks, we have seen almost similar schemes extended to the communities by giant platinum mining companies Zimplats and Unki. We hope these mines will go a step further and also empower their workers.
The Schweppes Employee and Management Share Ownership Trust launched by President Mugabe in Harare on Wednesday is commendable and we hope more companies will adopt similar schemes as a way of empowering their workers.
Under the Schweppes Share Ownership Trust, workers will own a 51 percent stake in the company while Delta, the parent company, retains 49 percent.
The share ownership scheme saw 31 percent of the firm’s equity going to the workers and 20 percent to management.
As President Mugabe rightly pointed out when he launched the Schweppes scheme, workers in the country have suffered from great injustice. Many workers in the country have toiled for big multinational corporations for years, only to retire with nothing to show for all the years of hard labour. Stories have been written of workers being presented with wrist watches, bicycles, wheelbarrows or scotch-carts on retirement after years of dedicated service. It is our hope that the Schweppes share ownership trust will pave the way for other firms to follow. Companies have nothing to fear in such kind of schemes. Neither should they fear the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act which requires that at least 51 percent of a firm’s equity should be in the hands of indigenous Zimbabweans.
In fact, studies have shown that employee share ownership schemes will improve efficiency as every employee will now be a shareholder and would be bound to put maximum effort to increase productivity and ensure the company performs well so that it makes a profit and pays a dividend. This will certainly spur on workers to pull in the same direction.Our people’s eyes and minds should change from being employees to owners and directors of companies.
Gone should be the days when blacks were hewers of wood and drawers of water in their own land.
As we have said before, the world over indigenous people — whether in Britain, France, America, Japan, China — own and control their resources and have a bigger say in the way multinational corporations operate in their countries.
Why must the rules of the game be changed when it comes to Zimbabwe?
Zimbabwean workers must rightly claim their place in the company boardrooms.
Online Reporter