SOME Allied Timbers senior managers claim that they are being victimised by the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) Remigio Nenzou after they testified against him in a case he is being accused of criminal abuse of office.
The managers have been forced to resign, while others are being denied employment benefits they had been enjoying before Nenzou was nabbed by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc), NewsDay can reveal.
Nenzou was arrested for criminal abuse of office in 2020 after he reportedly awarded a German company a tender to supply a sawmill without following the tender-awarding process.
Several Allied Timbers managers were then picked up by Zacc for questioning with regards to the matter.
“Since then, I, together with other senior managers who testified in the case, have been suffering from victimisation,” one of the managers who refused to be named for fear of further victimisation said.
“Some of the employment benefits we were enjoying before Zacc started the investigation were withdrawn after we had testified in the case. We have been subjected to various forms of abuse which include internal disciplinary hearings on baseless accusations.”
Contacted for comment, Nenzou said: “I am not aware of any benefits that were withdrawn from any manager, either by my instruction or by the company. Therefore, I would not comment on the victimisation claims.”
The managers said several calls made to Zacc to intervene have been in vain.
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“I have sent several messages to Zacc asking for its intervention, but to no avail. We really feel that the institution should intervene because if I had a choice, I would not have gone to testify against the boss knowing the consequences.”
Zacc spokesperson Thandiwe Mlobane said she was in a meeting.
Pressure has been piling on government to expedite crafting and enactment of a law that protects whistle-blowers and witnesses who play a critical role in exposing graft.
