HWANGE SUSPENDS TOP BOSSES:

THE Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) board has suspended the acting managing director Engineer Shepherd Manamike on allegations of “unethical business practices”.

Mr Manamike has been suspended together with the executive (finance and administration) Mr Tawanda Marapira. The suspension is in sync with the declaration of war against corruption that is being waged by the new administration.

In a statement yesterday, HCCL acting board chairperson Mrs Juliana Muskwe said: “The company advises that it has suspended its acting managing director (Mr Shepherd Manamike) and the executive (finance and administration) Mr Tawanda Marapira with effect from Thursday October 4, 2018. The company has witnessed unethical business practices characterised by financial improprieties, particularly unauthorised expenditure.”

Mrs Muskwe said it is “unacceptable” the managers would engage in unauthorised expenditure at a time when the company was focused on production and sales. She said the unauthorised financial transactions resulted in the company failing to meet its “key obligations due to its creditors and employees”.

However, Mrs Muskwe said the challenges with meeting creditors’ and employee obligations are a “temporary setback” occasioned by substandard performance within management structures.

She said the board reassures all stakeholders that it is on course to address the issues and return to normalcy. Mrs Muskwe said HCCL currently is sitting on a stockpile of 345 000 tonnes of coal, which can easily be converted to revenue estimated at $13 million.

The funds would then be used to address the company’s short-term challenges.

“It is unacceptable that with such stock the company fails to meet its financial obligations. The accumulation of a huge stockpile against huge market demand borders on sabotage than anything which the board has moved in to uproot.