Zimbabwe’s Hwange Colliery to Fire 200 Staff, Executive Says

Hwange Colliery Co. Ltd. (HWANGE), a Zimbabwean coal miner, will fire 200 administration and human resources workers because a new computer program will do their work in a “paperless” environment, said Fred Moyo, the company’s managing director

The workers will lose their jobs immediately, Moyo said in a telephone interview from Harare today before a company board meeting in the capital. “No one employed in operations has been affected,” he said.

Hwange, in western Zimbabwe, is Zimbabwe’s biggest colliery and the main supplier of fuel to Zimbabwe’s state-owned power utility Zesa Holdings (Pvt) Ltd. The mine has been held back by ageing equipment and needs about $200 million to recapitalize, Moyo said May 16.

The company also exports coal to neighboring countries and India, and is negotiating to sell to China.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Latham in Johannesburg at in Harare at blatham@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.