HARARE – Hwange Colliery Ltd., a partly state-owned Zimbabwean coal miner, plans to cut 1 500 jobs this year to make it more viable and has put measures in place to protect it from lawsuits, Deputy Mines Minister Fred Moyo said.
“Hwange’s labour force is 3 000 and about 1 500 are going to be laid off to make the company remain viable,” Moyo told lawmakers leaders in the capital, Harare. The country has a 37% stake in the company. “Government has put in place a scheme arrangement authorized by the High Court which will protect the company against litigation.”
Hwange operates a mine in northwest Zimbabwe and is the country’s largest coal miner after Makomo Resources (Pvt) Ltd. and a supplier of the fuel to State-owned power utility Zesa Holdings (Pvt) Ltd. British businessperson Nicholas van Hoogstraten holds 20% of Hwange through Messina Investments Ltd.