adminOliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE Deputy Sheriff has approved a sale by public auction of some of Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL)’s assets by 16 of its workers who seek to recover about $800,000 owed to them in unpaid salaries.
The public auction will be conducted in Hwange on Saturday to dispose two Mahindra tractors, a Nissan UD70 fuel bowser, eight Ford Ranger vehicles, Mercedes Benz, Mazda BT50, two excavators and Massey Ferguson tractors and dumpers, a notice said yesterday.
HCCL managing director Thomas Makore confirmed the development.
He said the public auction of its assets was one of the litigations facing the giant colliery firm.
“This (public auction) is one of the many litigations we’ve had. The workers (Leteng Sibanda and 15 others) are chasing payment of their salaries,” he said.
“We’ve been paying the workers but the payment is behind by several months and as a result they’re taking a writ of execution against the company. We owe them around $800,000.”
Due to operational constraints facing the colliery, salary arrears have ballooned to around $19 million as at November 2014.
Following the recent acquisition of new mining equipment worth $31.2 million through two recapitalisation transactions which were vendor-financed under the PTA BELAZ facility of $18.2 million and the India Exim Bank’s $13.03 million BEML facility, HCCL targets improved coal output to a minimum of 450,000 tonnes per month.
Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko commissioned the new equipment last Friday.
The new mining equipment comprises 10 dump trucks, five front-end loaders and two wheel dozers from BELAZ while two excavators, two water bowsers, three front-end loaders, three bulldozers, three drill rigs, a motor grader and one tyre handler were supplied by MEML.
The projected output is based on the new machinery together with the work of a contractor-Mota Engil that HCCL engaged in August last year. Mota Engil was engaged to produce 200,000 tonnes of coal monthly and its output has reached 96,000 tonnes per month.
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