For the people of Ndola, Portland Cement Zambia has been like a lifeline. Hundreds and thousands of workers used to earn their living with the aid of the factory. But in the last one and half years, things have taken a dramatic turnaround where the new management has fired the existing workers and is now on the loot. The situation has reached a level where experts say that the scope of recovery is almost negligible.
What happened in Portland Cement Zambia?
On April 7, 2015, the minority shareholder of the factory came in with loaded trucks full of goons and took over the factory in a typical mafias style. The factory premise was first surrounded by the goons and then the Ventriglias entered the factory as if the factory was their own personal property that they were snatching from someone else. A key management person also tried to show him the legal notice which was previously obtained by the High Court, but the same was torn into pieces and then thrown at the face of the same poor person.
What is the current situation of Portland Cement Zambia?
Today, the factory is nothing more than a premise full of empty rooms and broken walls. Once the Ventriglia family was able to take over the factory, they first started to loot the factory cash box and then moved ahead with the assets. The factory trucks were transferred to some other company and on the other hand, the existing premise of the factory has also been given to a company named as Astrea Investment. The workers were earlier dismissed because the new management believed that there was not enough work for them in the factory.
The story of Portland Cement Zambia continues to haunt thousands of Zambians and the worst part is that most of the workers who worked there had families to feed and they were the sole earning member.