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Herald Reporter
Meikles Limited last week said a $90 million debt owed to it by Government had affected its effort to fund the acquisition of 10 percent employee share ownership trust launched in 2011.
In a related matter, workers at Schweppes Zimbabwe said they had not derived any benefits from the 31 percent share ownership trust that workers and management acquired from the firm.

This came out during a meeting of the Senate thematic committee on Indigenisation chaired by Harare Metropolitan Senator Cleveria Chizema (Zanu-PF).
Meikles executive director Mr Mark Wood said Government issued them with Treasury Bills whose maturity is due in the next three years.
This, coupled with the cash crunch, had affected the trust, said Mr Wood.

He said the money was lent to the Government as balance of payment support through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe at the height of economic recession.
“Meikles has not a declared dividend for the past 10 years. If we go back to the last 10 years the economy has been fairly difficult to operate in. In 2007 and 2008 supermarkets were empty and inflation was rampant. We have not been making profit and if we did it was too small to declare a dividend.

“Meikles has more than 250 million shares and if we declare a dividend it means it would cost us not less than US$25 million,” said Mr Wood.
He was responding to a question from Masvingo Senator Shuvai Mahofa (Zanu-PF) who asked why they were they not declaring dividend.

Later on a workers’ committee from Schweppes told the committee that there was no significant financial benefit that had accrued to them since the employee share ownership trust was formed amid pomp and fanfare in 2010.

Chairperson Mr Richard Maphosa said there was need for them to have individual certificates as opposed to a group document so that if an employee left the firm he or she could sell his equity.

“If an employee leaves today he will just go without anything. We have nothing to show that we are shareholders. For the past five years we have only got $240 that we were paid as individuals, which we feel is too little,” said Mr Maphosa.

“We are indigenised but not empowered.”
The committee was told that six directors held 20 percent shareholding in the firm while the rest of the 600 workers share among themselves 31 percent equity.
Senators said there was need for the workers to bring documents to support what they were saying.

This was after workers failed to furnish the committee with the trust deed which they said stipulated that one should have his equity offset when he leaves the company.