Sable Chemicals bosses quit

Lovemore Zigara/Patience Mutsiwi Midlands Reporters
The Kwekwe-based Sable Chemicals Industries Limited chief executive officer Mr Jack Murehwa and the chief finance officer Mr Nyasha Makoni have both left the company.

Both Mr Murehwa and Mr Makoni resigned at the end of last month.

Mr Bothwell Nyajena has since taken over as chief executive officer on an acting capacity.

Chemplex Corporation (a shareholder at Sables) chief executive officer, Mr Misheck Kachere yesterday confirmed the departure of Mr Murehwa and Mr Makoni.

“Both gentlemen resigned at the end of June for personal reasons. Maybe they felt production had taken a nosedive but it was an amicable separation. However we wish them well in their future endeavours,” said the Chemplex boss.

Mr Murehwa said he left the company to pursue personal interests.

“It’s true that I left Sable Chemicals at the end of June and I’m pursuing personal interests in the mining sector. You can call our head office for more details,” he told Business Chronicle.

The company is a joint venture between Chemplex Corporation and TA Holdings, which holds 51 percent stake with the former owning 36 percent while Norsk Hydro holds 12 percent. The balance is owned by the public. Mr Murehwa has been at the helm of the country’s sole Ammonium Nitrate (AN) fertiliser manufacturer since September 2009.

Despite being a strategic firm in the agricultural sector, the company has continued to struggle over the years resulting in its electrolysis plant being switched off from the national grid when the country experienced power shortages last year.

The high costs on its technology have seen the company importing ammonia, a key component in the production of AN from fertiliser companies in South Africa.

At its peak the company used to produce 240,000 tonnes of AN fertiliser per year but production has since plummeted to less than 100,000 tonnes of the commodity per annum due to the harsh economic environment.

The company had proposed an ambitious plan to set up a Coal Bed Methane (CBM) plant, which Mr Murehwa had been steering to replace the electrolysis technology.

The project believed to be worth around $600 million has been stalled mainly due to the absence of an investor to exploit the gas reserves in Lupane.

Mr Murehwa is a past vice president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and the immediate past president of the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz).

Sable Chemicals Industries Limited was established in 1965 and started operations in 1969. The plant is located on the outskirts of Kwekwe city, which is approximately 220km from the capital city, Harare, and between 1 – 1.5km from the Harare Bulawayo main road.

The company started production using imported ammonia in 1969 before the commissioning of its own ammonia production facility in 1972.

It also produces and sells gaseous oxygen, liquid oxygen, anhydrous ammonia and nitric acid.