KWEKWE – Some workers at the Ammonium Nitrate fertiliser manufacturing company, Sable Chemicals Industries have gone for six months without getting their monthly salaries, it has been learnt.
The company, which has about 300 workers, was affected by an industrial action by Railway workers in South Africa which caused delays in delivering y raw material – ammonia nitrate needed for the company to operate.
The strike by railway workers ended on October 17 and Sable is now expecting to receive ammonia nitrate from South Africa anytime soon.
Sable Chemicals Industries has not been producing fertilizer from its one active plant to enable it to generate revenue to pay workers.
In an interview on Wednesday, Sable Chemicals Chief Executive Officer Bothwell Nyajeka said the issue of workers’ outstanding salaries was a “private issue” which they communicate with employees.
“With regard to employees’ salaries, I think that is a private issue with our employees. All I can say we are in constant touch with employees and I think at the moment we are all okay. I cannot give you much detail on that, it’s a private issue,” said Nyajeka.
One Sable Chemicals employee confirmed that workers have gone for six months without any salaries.
He said the company promised to pay part of the outstanding salaries as soon as they receive ammonia nitrate imported from South Africa.
“We visited the COO (Chief Operations Officer) and we wanted to get the latest update on salaries and plant start up. Management promised to pay September salaries as soon as ammonia nitrate starts to move in from South Africa.
“Management promised a Townhall meeting soon and that the plant is expected to start running the first week of November.”
The source said production at Sable Chemicals had been affected by the strike by Railway workers in South Africa which has affected the delivery of ammonia nitrate.
“The company paid for the ammonia nitrate from South Africa which when it arrives at the border, the supplier pays for the conversion costs, when paid the company will start producing fertilizer, sell it and get money to pay for the outstanding salaries.
“As we speak, we are expecting the delivery of ammonia nitrate. Once it comes and produce fertilizer, workers will be paid according to the prevailing rate,” said the source adding that the ammonia nitrate they are expecting from South Africa is enough to last for one and half months.
“Our major challenge is that we are using the old model of producing fertilizer. We are importing ammonia nitrate from South Africa. If there are any challenges in South Africa, it affects us here in Zimbabwe. If there is a strike in South Africa just as it is now or derailment on the Zimbabwe side, there will be no production here,” another source said.
The source suggested that Sable Chemicals Industries should invest in solar energy in order to produce own electricity which will see the company producing its own raw material needed for the production of fertilizer.
“Right now, we can get the raw material from Egypt via Zambia or Mozambique but the major bottleneck is foreign currency to import the raw material. This route is too expensive.”
The employee said some of the challenges at Sable Chemicals Industries can be resolved if the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe timeously releases foreign currency allocation to manufacturing companies.
“In March (2022) the company made an application for a loan from ZB Bank which we only received some few weeks ago; same amount but it was affected by inflation,” said the source.
Meanwhile, the Kwekwe based company is retooling its plant after securing a US$11million loan fund from Africa Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) last year. After the refurbishment project, Sable Chemicals is expected to produce about 200 000 tonnes up from 50 000 tonnes of AN.
The company CEO Nyajeka confirmed that the refurbishment exercise is expected to be completed by December this year.
“We are refurbishing our plant and that exercise we are completing end of December to increase capacity. Currently, we have only one active plant that is running and after the refurbishment exercise, we will have two active plants and this will double our production capacity,” said Nyajeka.
Sable Chemicals is expected to produce 120 000 metric tonnes of fertiliser in the 2022/23 farming season as plans to scale up local production are in full swing.
The company is also venturing into the dairy sector and the construction of a solar plant to address power shortages. If successful, the 400MW solar plant will be able to power the electrolysis plant as well as feed into the national greed.
