Govt Releases $30 Million For Former Zisco Workers' Payouts

The government has finally paid former Zisco workers their retrenchment packages after they were laid off in 2016.

This was revealed by Zisco acting board chairman Gift Mugano who said the government availed RTGS$30 million for the payouts, though the former workers demanded to be paid in US dollars. Said Mugano:

Though the workers were retrenched in 2016, we recently cleared their outstanding retrenchment packages through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, which gave us about $30 million.

Of course, I am aware that they (former workers) are complaining that they want their money in US dollars because at that time their money was in US dollars.

The government is the major shareholder in the Redcliff-based steel maker which ceased operations in 2008 at the height of world-record hyperinflation.

A Chinese investor, R and F, signed a US$1 billion deal with the government in 2017 to resuscitate Zisco. The deal has been on hold as there are negotiations on iron-ore claims that are yet to be completed.

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