The Sunday Mail
HWANGE Colliery Company Limited will pursue former officials who allegedly milked the company dry through shady dealings that plunged the coal mining giant into massive debt.
Africa Moyo – Business Reporter
The former officials are accused of “deliberately bleeding” the company by entering dubious deals.
HCCL is burdened by a US$161 million legacy debt, which has come down to US$136 million after the payment of US$25 million last year.
The debts accrued mainly from 2006 and included US$80 million owed to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and US$80 million to trade creditors and in salary arrears.
In its results for the year ended December 31 2014, HCCL said legacy debts continued “to inflict pain on the operations of the company and torpedoed the turnaround initiatives”.
“A review of the legacy debts established delinquent conduct on the part of the parties involved and in due course, the company will take appropriate action,” said HCCL in a statement accompanying the results.
This comes hard on the heels of the recent incarceration of former Air Zimbabwe honchos Mr Peter Chikumba and Mrs Grace Pfumbidzai.
The duo was sentenced to seven years in jail each for criminal abuse of public office after prejudicing Air Zimbabwe of more than US$10 million in “a well-orchestrated insurance scam”.
A top HCCL executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Sunday Mail Business last week that everyone who pilfered will be held to account in the “very near future”.
“The company has performed a full audit of accounts to determine the level of plunder and those responsible. (The full audit) was done by Ernst & Young and BCA Consultants, and armed with this report, the board will consult shareholders on the action to be taken on some of the delinquent transactions.
“We are warning them that we are coming after them. As the new brooms, we have taken a position that we will focus more on running the company efficiently, but some of the former bosses have been saying ‘that will not happen’,” said the official.
HCCL board chair Mr Farai Mutamangira declined to comment.
Some former board members stand accused of looting HCCL resources during their tenure, resulting in the company failing to honour obligations like taxes, salaries and wages.
Government, the largest shareholder with a 37 percent in HCCL, is understood to be keen to convert the coal miner’s debt to the State into equity under the company’s proposed US$88 million rights offer.
HCCL recently announced that plans to raise US$88 million from shareholders and a conditional private placement of US$51 million were fairly advanced, and the firm is presently capitalising its operations.
State-of-the-art mining equipment worth US$31,2 million from India and Eastern Europe has been purchased and delivered to this end.
The equipment started arriving early April for open-cast mining.
This, and the contribution from contractor Mota Engil, is expected to take production to 450 000 tonnes per month in the second half of 2015.
Mota Engil is a Portuguese conglomerate contracted by Hwange to produce 200 000 tonnes of coal per month for five years, and it surpassed this monthly target for the first time in February 2015 (213 000 tonnes).
