TRUCK owners have clashed with the Bulawayo City Council-owned Ingwebu Breweries (Pvt) Limited over unpaid dues for car hire services.
“We are truck operators hired by Ingwebu Breweries to transport its products to various parts of the country,” a truck owner said.
“We have been doing this job for quite some time until some of our vehicles broke down, but still to date, we are yet to be paid.”
Another truck owner said they had tried to engage the management to address their concerns, but without success.
He said the company has been promising to clear the arrears only after expanding operations and introducing new products to out-do its competitors.
“What has made the situation worse is that they have used our vehicles until they broke down and now they have bought their own horse trucks. So they rarely call us for transportation services. But still, they have not made any commitment to pay us, we are very much concerned over that,” he said.
“When we go out for deliveries, we go with cashiers and we have seen that the company makes good money, but it does not want to pay us.”
Ingwebu managing director Dumisani Mhlanga said the company was still recovering from the COVID-19 shocks that affected businesses.
“We have been trying to pay the transporters their dues even though at times we fail to pay on time and to pay them the amount we agreed as we are still trying to recover from the losses we acquired during the COVID-19 era,” he said.
Mhlanga said they were not only failing to pay the transporters, but other departments because of the financial situation at the company.
“The current problem we are facing with some transporters is that they are afraid that we might cut our ties with them as we have bought our own trucks. The fact is we still need them even though we have bought our trucks. We will continue to engage and work with them,” he said.
“As a company, we are willing to pay our transporters, but due to the financial difficulties, we are failing. But once we recover, we promise to pay them as we have been working with them for a long time.”