REDCLIFF — Ziscosteel and Bimco employees last Thursday thronged Torwood Stadium for a special prayer meeting to seek divine intervention to ensure the ongoing last-lap negotiations between the government and the company’s new investor, Essar Africa Holdings, bore fruit.
Employees were allowed to knock off around 12 noon as management sanctioned the prayer meeting which was attended by over 1 000 workers and their spouses.
Speaking at the meeting, Redcliff MP Isheunesu Muza (Zanu PF) admitted that the government had indeed failed to offer a solution to the Ziscosteel crisis. “Your cries have been heard for a long time, but no solution has been found,” he said.
“But we are now giving your burden to God . . . Together we have been brought here by a common denominator of poverty which is stinking loudly in our homes.
“I know church leaders have also been affected by this Ziscosteel crisis because even tithes are no longer coming to the offering basket on Sunday because your shepherds are poor.”
Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube has blamed the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development for the delays in concluding the Essar takeover.
Mines minister Obert Mpofu last week said he wanted the deal that saw the Indian steel giant getting 54% of the stake in Ziscosteel to be reviewed in line with the country’s indigenisation policy.
