adminwanders to not so many years ago when he was still employed here and the place was a hive of activity and the lifeblood of the town.
Those were the days, he recalls, with a pang of nostalgia.
After hard times hit the company early this decade, he had no choice but to leave the company where his father worked for greener pastures.
Now David Whitehead of yore is no more.
The shutdown of David Whitehead Textiles industry has raised more questions than answers as no solutions seem to be forthcoming with the hundreds of employees now wondering as to whether the company would ever revive its status as the country’s biggest fabric manufacturer.
More than two investors have come and gone after squabbles with the previous owners who have been accused of interfering with the operations of these investors.
First to come in was Elgate Investments which was under Mr Andrew Toendepi who is now believed to be out of the country after allegedly fleeing for allegedly stripping the company assets which he sold as scrap metal in South Africa.
Mr Toendepi’s company was supposed to have injected US$5,4 million in David Whitehead as it was supposed to be the major shareholder. This money was supposed to have been injected in the company during judicial manager Mr Cecil Madondo’s time in 2007.
Mr Madondo, who resigned in 2008 citing lengthy impasse with the new investor maintained that Elgate Investments had not fully injected the money it was supposed to in David Whitehead.
Mr Madondo further stated that when he resigned, Elgate had only paid US$3 million for a 28 percent stake instead of the 51 percent equity it claimed in the embattled textile giant.
He further stated that when he realised the non-payment of the full amount by Elgate, he then sought an order from the High Court which was subsequently granted to empower the Master of the High Court to fully enforce the shareholders’ agreement between Elgate and DWTL.
This implied that the Master of the High Court, Mr Charles Nyatanga was to ensure Elgate paid the remaining US$2,4 million to assume a controlling stake of the textile giant.
Mr Nyatanga on the other hand confirmed that the outstanding US$2,4 million was paid by Elgate.
He said he got confirmation of the balance of US$2,4 million from the then chief executive officer of DWTL, Mr Maulidi.
Mr Nyatanga further stated that he had no reason to doubt Mr Maulidi’s confirmation since he was the same person who received and acknowledged payment of the initial US$3 million during Mr Madondo’s tenure at the company.
The bone of contention is whether the US$2,4 million was paid.
The second judicial manager appointed last year, Mr Wenseley Militala, has also queried the same.
The argument is that if at all the balance was indeed paid, DWTL’s state of affairs would have improved in terms of its operations.
This has prompted Secretary for Justice and Legal Affairs Mr David Mangota writing to Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri to institute an investigation to establish if indeed Elgate fully discharged its obligations to DWTL.
To date it is not clear whether those investigations have started or are yet to be instituted.
While this entire sad scenario takes its toll at the company, the most affected are the employees, as they have not only lost their jobs, but also their identity.
The workers who have been in this predicament for a long time had had their hopes quashed each time new developments take place at the detriment of the employees.
As if these were not enough problems for the employees, a company that had come to their rescue early last year by renting the Chegutu, Kadoma and Gweru factories, Kithra Investmnts has again pulled out before the expiry of the one-year contract after being allegedly “harassed” by former investor Mr Andrew Toendepi.
The pulling out of Kithra Investments has again seen the workers who had thought their problems were now over being taken back to square one as they have become jobless once again.
As had been the case in previous scenarios, the workers now in dismay with no employment are singing the blues, as they no longer have a source of income to fend for their families.
The workers say their lives are now at stake as there seems to be no solution to end the woes as they can no longer afford paying school fees for their children as well as paying their monthly rentals since most of them were lodging.
Vending has thus become the order of the day in the small town as families try to make ends meet since the Chegutu factory was one of the biggest employer in the town.
The removal of various assets from the factories which have collapsed has also seen the Chegutu factory’s almost 103 different weaving as well as ginning machines being stripped.
A visit to the factory recently revealed a sad scenario where some of the workers could still be seen milling around anticipating that a miracle could happen and see the factory resuming operations that could save their already miserable lives.
The workers showed this paper some of the remaining equipment as well as raw materials, which are lying idle with the employees claiming that a person who can run the company is all that is left.
“As you can see there is almost everything required to start work but we only need a person who can start running the company again. With these raw materials we can at least work to order more materials,” said one foreman who added that the human capital was still intact, as people were still eager to work.
Indeed there are quite a number of raw materials with some of the threads still mounted on various machines waiting to be manufactured into fabrics. There is no one to pay for the electricity bills to resume operations.
Some of the equipment is now scattered outside the company buildings making them prone to rust.
“We have been saying this over and over again that the company assets are being stripped but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. No one in authority seemed to care to the point where things are today. Even if it means reviving the company, the capital requirement to resuscitate the stripped machinery is going to be high,” he said.
A labour expert, Mr Richard Kasere said the DWTL saga had more than what meets the eye. He said it was always important for authorities to listen to workers’ pleas as employees always had their companies at heart more than management
“In all labour-related issues, authorities have had a tendency of ignoring employees when they raise some irregularities within their organisations. By the time they decide to act, it has always been too late, as organisations would have been run down.
“Most management have the ability to loot organisations and resign before their actions are discovered,” said Mr Kasere.
He said that in some cases the looters have even been given golden handshakes on top of running down the organisations, leaving employees at the receiving end.
DWTL was first put under judicial management in May 2005 before the management order was cancelled in May 2008.
It continued struggling until it was placed under a similar reconstruction plan in December last year.
The company’s factories in Kadoma, Chegutu and Gweru are currently closed after Kithra Enterprises, a company that was renting them, pulled out two months ago.
DWTL used to be the largest textile manufacturer in Zimbabwe, employing no less than 3 000 people.
Online Reporter