Mayhem as workers block company closure

Oliken Sands, owned by Midlands businessman Mr Oliver Rugube was leasing equipment and premises from Nelson Holdings but the business was recently sold meaning that Oliken had to be closed.
Police were later called to the scene after the employees started demonstrating and mobbing one of the Nelson Holdings directors, Ms Janet Bicks who was accompanied by a Mr Gonzales.
The two who had been leasing the premises to Oliken Sands had brought a haulage truck into the premises to take away some property and equipment after they sold the company to some Chinese investors, allegedly without the knowledge of Oliken Sands management and staff.
The disgruntled employees then quickly staged a demo by blocking the haulage truck and mobbing Ms Bicks, waving placards denouncing the                   move.
Police took Ms Bicks and Oliken management to Gweru Central Police Station after halting moves to load company property into the haulage truck.
When a Chronicle newscrew arrived at the company premises at about 10am, it was confronted by Ms Bicks. She verbally abused the crew before poking this reporter on the face for taking pictures of demonstrating employees.
“Who are you? Why are you taking those pictures? Can I have that camera or can you delete those pictures?” said Ms Bicks charging at the news team as demonstrating workers chanted in the background.
When the crew refused to delete the pictures, Ms Bicks used her mobile phone to take pictures of the team and threatened to take an unspecified action against the news crew.
In separate interviews, the workers, who have since declared themselves new “owners” of the company said they were surprised when they saw a haulage truck driving into the company premises to take away equipment.
They said their employer, Oliken Sands, had not communicated to them that the company had been sold.
“We then quickly inquired from our human resources manager, Mr (Shadreck) Mamombe who later confirmed that the company had been sold to some Chinese guys. This was when we decided to block the loading                          into the haulage truck of some property,” said an employee, Mr Edward Garandemo.
He said Ms Bicks then charged at them resulting in the employees demonstrating.
Another employee, Mr Samuel Sibanda who has worked for the company for 28 years said the owner of the company, Mr David Nelson, left the country in 2008 under unclear circumstances.
“The company was then taken over by Ms Bicks who later leased the company premises and equipment to Mr Oliver Rugube in the same year who has many companies in Kwekwe and Gweru trading as Oliken Holdings.
“When Mr Rugube took over from Nelson Holdings he signed new contracts with the employees and some of us who have been here for many years are owed lots of money in unpaid benefits by Mr Nelson who is in exile,” said Mr Garandemo.
Mrs Letty Banga said they were shocked that Ms Bicks sold Nelson Holdings on behalf of Mr  Nelson to the Chinese without their knowledge.
“It’s so painful for us as employees to be subjected to such                                  inhumane treatment. The plans should have been communicated in time to us and we  were supposed to be paid our benefits before the company was sold,” she said.
Mr Mamombe said the workers were protesting against the secret selling of the company and equipment to the Chinese investors when an indigenous businessperson, Mr Rugube was prepared to buy it.
“To my understanding, director of Oliken holdings, Mr Rugube who has been leasing Nelson Holdings premises was willing to buy this company from Mr Nelson and Ms Bicks. There has been some communication between Ms Bicks and Mr Rugube over the sale of the company but I was also surprised when we were told early this week by Ms Bicks that the company had been sold to some Chinese guys,” he said.
Ms Bicks said: “I communicated to Mr Rugube that we intended to sell the company and he only indicated that he was wiling to buy the company but did not make any offers. We waited for the whole of last year until we decided to dispose the company to other buyers,” said Ms Bicks.
She said Mr Rugube owed them $ 50 000 in rentals. “Mr Rugube has not been paying his rentals and now he owes us $ 50 000,” she said.
Mr Rugube confirmed that he indeed owed Ms Bicks some money in unpaid rentals. He, however, said he was willing to buy the company but was not given the chance to negotiate by Ms Bicks.
“It’s not true that we owe David Nelson Investments $50 000. We owe them            $38 000 and it’s a fact that most companies are not performing well                               but we have been paying something towards the rentals every month,” he                   said.
Mr Rugube said Ms Bicks only communicated her intentions to sell Nelson Holdings but did not table say for how much she was selling the company.
“She only hinted that she intended to sell the company and when we were running around to mobilise some money so that we could approach her to get the conditions, we were stunned when she wrote to us that Nelson Holdings had been sold.
She went on to issue us with a three months notice but it has been hard to inform the employees of this development when we were not given the chance to negotiate the buying of the company,” he said.
Mr Rugube said Oliken Holdings was prepared to buy the company if Ms Bicks and her partners were sincere.
“We are prepared to buy the company in line with the indigenisation and empowerment policy. It’s only that there was no transparency in the way the company was sold,” he said.
Oliken Sands supplies building material that include bricks, pit and river sand as well as quarry stones.