Zisco: Still no steel

that gave birth to NewZim Steel one year ago.
While the launch of NewZim Steel by President Mugabe raised hopes that happier times were returning to Zisco, the picture now looks bleak.
For a worker who has gone for half a year without pay, and owed over 20 months in outstanding salaries, the burden cannot be heavier.
In addition to his own hunger, uncertainty and anger, the worker has to contend with the additional burden of children who are malnourished, sick and being chased away from school because they have not  paid fees.
There is also the spouse to look after, as traditionally expected.
The air around is acrid — and this is not because of industrial emissions as there is no activity at the steelmaker save for routine maintenance and housekeeping.
The people are bitter.
Akim Mujokeri, the chairperson of the Iron and Steel Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe, the body that represents workers of the troubled steelmaker, is a visibly angry man — on his own behalf and on behalf of his kind.
He is in deep despair and talks in a slow, deliberate and measured way.
“The worker here says, ‘Give us what is due to us and let us go back to the rural areas,” he told The Herald last week.
“We are tired of being treated like dogs: we have no food, children do not go to school and the landlords are chasing people away. We are now beggars not workers. We are like an orphan left at crossroads with no one to turn to,” he said.
The workers’ rep said they last got paid in April and the management has not yet communicated with them.
“As a representative of the workers, I now find it hard to talk to workers because I do not have the answers to give them,” he mourned.
The Herald, too, sought answers from the authorities at the mine but CEO Alois Gowo flatly refused to talk or entertain the paper under any circumstances, saying, through his secretary, that he did not want to be disturbed.
He was holed up in his office which is beyond a number of security barriers.
Still more grievances and more nightmares haunt the families.
Amai Msipa, whose husband died last June after serving Zisco for 31 years, is a bitter woman.
“When my husband died he left behind two children: one in Form 5 and another doing Grade 6,” she said.
“My husband had been owed 19 months pay and when he died I did not get his benefits. To date I have not received a cent from the company and I have sunk into debt.
“I have to pay for electricity, to council and buy food and pay school fees. I have no means to find the money. One could sell stuff to get money but then who do you sell to? The workers have no money!”
To confirm this, a drive around Torwood shows that amenities such as shops and beerhalls have shut down, as has the hospital, and people now rely on tuckshops.
The woman, who sells vegetables, says she is owed a lot of money by some customers, who, expectedly, do not have anywhere to get the money.
No amount of tears will move the management to release money to Amai Msipa.
“They tell me there is no money, the only money they gave me being the US$110 for the funeral grant. They should pay the pensions and the leave days that were accrued by my late husband.”
Amai Msipa has withdrawn her child from a boarding school  in Zvishavane as she could no longer afford the fees and other requirements.
She is pleading with Government and other stakeholders to come especially to the rescue of Zisco children.
“It pains to see children not going to school because there is no breadwinner and there is no work,” she said.
Role reversal
The fall of Zisco has spelt doom for families.
“Many families have broken down in light of the challenges at Zisco,” explained Mai Msipa.
“Those who were not firm in their relationship separated. Some women left their husbands to go to South Africa and never came back,” she said.
Some women, though, have persevered and have become the backbone of their families as they are involved in barter trade.
They sell second-hand clothes and vegetables to farming communities were they get maize in turn.
The role reversal, as the general fate of workers, has not been embraced with equanimity.
“When I wake up I feel like I am no longer the father and head of the house,” is the bitter complaint of Vincent Masiiwa, who is also vice-chair of the workers’ union.
“If I cannot feed my family and educate my children or attend family gatherings because I don’t have the money it means I am no longer the father.
“It is painful . . . the situation is terrible and horrible,” he said.
A 60-year-old widower who says he started work here on March 15 1973 and is a semi-skilled electrician now has to live the degrading experience of being looked after by his son when he should be fending for himself.
“I am now being taken care of by my son, who has two children of his own,” decried the man who declined to be named for fear of embarrassment.
“We do not know what happened to the NewZim Steel deal . . . it is all painful now because whatever is happening or holding up the implementation of the deal is affecting us the workers.
“We appeal to Government to remember us poor workers,” said he.
A refractory operator in the coke ovens department, who has been here since 1992, who blames the downfall of Zisco on mismanagement and nepotism, says the workers now have to rely on second-hand clothing.
Interestingly, when The Herald caught up with the man, he was mending a pair of shorts that had come from a second-hand clothes “bale”.
“We do not know how to survive,” he emphasised, in the face of obligations like paying for water and electricity, school fees.
Senior managers are reportedly better off as they have continued to use company vehicles and have fuel allocations, among other benefits.
Troubles at Zisco
Many people here agree that the rain began beating at Zisco early last decade when economic challenges set in. One man told The Herald that a crippling worker strike in 2003 was the one sign that things were turning awry.
When the company closed shop in 2008, it was saddled with a debt amounting to up to US$400 million.
The wage bill reportedly stood at US$20 million.
“Zisco has been a perennial problem,” legislator Mr Larry Mavhima, who is the State Enterprises and Parastatals Management Parliamentary Portfolio Committee chairperson, said.
“Even when President Mugabe launched the Essar deal last year he said Zisco had been a problem since independence in 1980 facing fiscal, management and infrastructural problems,” he said.
The woes at Zisco have had a negative impact not only on the workers and their families but also in the Kwekwe and the Midlands areas right through to the national level.
Mr Mavhima highlighted that, as one of the largest steelmakers in Sub-Saharan Africa, the fall of Zisco had a negative impact on the economy as it affected sectors such as construction and exports.
“Zisco has the capacity to employ between              6 000 and 10 000 people in both the upstream and downstream industries,” says economic analyst Mr Jonathan Kadzura.
“If well managed, Zisco can produce what is fed into other industries such as manufacturing with benefits to the agriculture and mining sectors. These in turn create employment,” he said.
Zisco could also export raw steel and earn the country the much-needed foreign currency, said Mr Kadzura.
“If you look at Zisco, it is also a huge consumer of local coal and other products manufactured locally. Zisco can create a national budget by itself,” posited Mr Kadzura.
Zisco is capable of giving earnings to different hands thereby “creating a huge basket of disposable incomes that can have the effect of stimulating local demand”, argues Mr Kadzura.
“This will increase the supply of locally produced goods and creating employment in the manufacturing industry.
“Government will be the net beneficiary of a huge taxable base which will be created apart from the fact that it is a shareholder,” he said.
Holy Grail
Many people see the recapitalisation of Zisco as the ultimate solution to the woes bedevilling the steelmaker. This is a view shared by Mr Kadzura.
However, the deal between Zisco and Essar, perhaps the much-anticipated Holy Grail, is in limbo, or worse still, danger.
The deal has been beset by misunderstanding among players with Government and the investor.
One of the biggest sticking points are revelations that Essar invested US$750 million but may reap up to US$30 billion.
The company reportedly did not declare the value of the unmined asset, while today it is demanding mining claims at Mwanesi that were reportedly uncovered by the deal.
There is a perception, as expressed too by one worker at Zisco, that the investors now seem keener on extracting iron and shipping it outside and more than bringing the steelmaking back to its feet.
Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara has variably described the Essar deal as a “bad” and “dumb” deal.
The man responsible for the deal, Industry Minister Welshman Ncube, has been accused of selling out and the Mines Minister is unhappy Minister Ncube gave away mining rights which power reposes with the Mines Minister Obert Mpofu.
“My own understanding of the deal is that there was not enough due diligence on the part of Zimbabwean negotiators,” believes Mr Mavhima.
“We should have incorporated senior advisors to adjudicate on tenders and we should have been aware of some of the issues that are coming up.
“The current situation is a result of critical analysis. On the other hand, all stakeholders should have been involved in the first instance, especially the Ministry of Mines who are the legal custodians.
They were not involved in the early stages hence the contestation that claims of worth US$30 billion cannot be let go for US$750 million,” he explained.
Industry Minister Welshman Ncube concedes that things have gone worse from the false start which saw Essar paying workers for a number of months.
There have been “incessant delays” in implementing the agreement with Essar which led to Essar suspending payment thus impacting the workers, their families and up to 14 000 dependents, he said.
“We are aware of the human factor at Zisco, that is why we persuaded Essar to pay workers even before the consummation of the deal,” said Professor Ncube.
“That is why we looked for such a deal in the first place and that is there was an agreement in Cabinet to implement the deal in full. In the last two weeks we have sat down with Essar to come up with an implementation matrix on what we have done and not done and what Essar have done and not done.
“That is now complete and Essar has to take the matrix for approval with their board and when they come back we start work,” he said.
There will be no immediate relief for the suffering Zisco workers.
“We will make payments to Zisco workers  as soon as the deal is implemented,” said Prof Ncube.
“There is no other way and Government has no other resources to pay Zisco workers: that is why it failed in the first place,” he said.