Many companies have been shutting down in Bulawayo which made the Industrial site in ruins. Kalbro is one of the companies which was doing good businesswomen and had offices in town and in the Industrial site. It specialized in carpet making and fitting, canvas products, carports, blinds and many other products of the sort. The company kept on expanding and doing good in business until the 2000 period up to period before its closure.
In 2002 the company saw the retrenchment of hundreds of workers leaving most families in hunger considering that the retrenched workers were breadwinners in their families. The situation got worse in the 2005-2008 period where it closed all its offices and was left with the town offices only. Most workers left without being retrenched or fired because it was no use to be in the comfort and the company could not provide much for them. They left without without theirs packages and the company could not do much because it was facing monetary challenges. The company MD Mr Mithal could not do much for them since the big guys in the company had left for Europe. The situation never got any better and the few remaining workers just hung on with the hopes that things will get better and they could go for months without any pay.
This went on until last week when the company officially shut down and workers were sent away with nothing, they were just promised by word of mouth that they will get them
What worries me much is that most of the workers were elderly people who could do with the pension funds, but now they were sent home empty handed, im just wondering what would happen to them and their families. My question is why did the company owners lose interest in reviving the company after 2008, was it due to political reasons or the fear for indeginisation? If most companies do likewise how would the Bulawayo industry look like and what would happen too workers and their employees???
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