adminFORMER Shabanie Mine workers who were in April left homeless after being evicted from company houses heaved a sigh of relief after a Bulawayo High Court judge granted an interdict reversing the eviction order issued against the workers pending judgment.
Shabanie had evicted 37 of its former employees who together with 700 other ex-workers were served with eviction orders.
The workers are part of over 1 000 employees who used to work for the collapsed asbestos mine that was once owned by South African based businessman Mr Mutumwa Mawere. The workers were in April evicted from the houses which were said to have been leased to other tenants but the workers successfully filed an appeal at the High Court.
Employees are demanding their outstanding salaries backdating to 2009 before vacating the houses. Former Shabanie Mine Workers’ Union representative Mr Hilton Nhidza said the workers had successfully filed papers at the High Court in Bulawayo and granted an interdict last week. He said employees were not refusing to vacate company houses but demanded their salary arrears backdated to 2009 before they could vacate the houses.
“We have been granted an interdict by the High Court and it has ordered Shabanie Mine to stop the evictions and allow the evicted employees to reoccupy their houses pending judgment.
“We have dragged Shabanie Mine to court demanding our outstanding salaries.
“We also want the company to honour its commitment after they promised to lease us houses on rent to buy basis. We want our salary dues to go towards purchasing of the housing units in question,” he said.
In a separate interview, chairman of former Shabanie Mine Workers’ Union Mr Alois Zhou said all they wanted was their dues from the company.
“All they are saying is go out, but to where. We don’t have money, we are broke,” said Mr Zhou.
He said they had been told that the university (Midlands State University) plans to start operations soon and therefore the need by the mines to clear workers to create space for the coming university staff and students.
Mr Zhou said poverty had forced most of the affected former workers to fail to pay their legal counsels to appeal the eviction judgments at the High Court.
He said the mine management had no heart at all for the former miners and was just concentrating on making money through leasing out the company houses to MSU.
Shabanie Mine chief executive officer Mr Chirandu Dhlembeu recently confirmed the evictions saying the people staying in Shabanie Mine houses had defaulted on paying rentals for a long time.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter