The Zambezi Portland Cement Factory is presently witnessing a nightmare under the management of the Ventriglia family. With every passing day, the action of these minority shareholders is getting worse and the end result is that the workers at ZPC are suffering. As per the latest news, 47 employees of the factory have been terminated from their jobs on account of being redundant.
The decision to terminate the employees was made by the management without any prior consultation with the factory Union. The action clearly indicates the level of dominance which the Ventriglia family maintains at the management level. However, when it came to highlighting a sufficient reason to execute termination, it was said that the factory has been running at a loss for the past few months and as a result, employees were required to be terminated. Internal sources have reported that the Zambezi Portland Cement factory can witness a similar termination very soon where the fate of about 53 employees will be sealed.
This incident has clearly raised a question with respect to the efficiency of Africa’s second largest cement factory. In December 2014, when Zambezi Portland Cement Factory was under Finsbury Investments, it showed a remarkable progress by exceeding its estimated output by almost 1, 00, 000 tonnes. However, with a change in management from April 2015, the Ventriglia family has only managed to promote corruption and employee abuse at the premise of ZPC.
The ownership of Zambezi Portland Cement Factory is still in contest between Finsbury Investments and the Ventriglia family. Nevertheless, the Ventriglia family tries to force a junior officer of PACRA at Kitwe Office to make changes within the register without obtaining an approval from the High Court on August 2015. When the matter came to PACRA, the changes were immediately removed from the register.