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Angry employees of David Whitehead and Sons (DWS) in Blantyre on Thursday beat up a Privatisation Commission (PC) consultant as they disrupted the commission’s proposed handover of the textile manufacturer to Mapeto/Jimtex Consortium.
Eye witnesses said the consultant, Arthur Stevens who works for Economic Resources Limited, was assaulted after forcing his way through the gate into the Whitex yard where the workers gathered, saying he had come to collect information on the handover.
They said Stevens was rushed to Mwaiwathu Private Hospital unconscious after the assault.
But Mwaiwathu Hospital Medical Director Jack Wirima’s personal assistant said Stevens was brought to the hospital conscious but was in pain and that as of Thursday afternoon the hospital was waiting for a report of an assessment by a surgeon.
“He was brought in conscious. In fact he was walking and talking but was in pain,” she said.
Commenting on Stevens’ ordeal in an interview, DWS acting chief executive Evelyn Mwapasa said it is unfortunate that he went to the company after she had warned him of the tension at the premises.
“Of course, I don’t condone the violence but his assault could have been avoided if he listened to my advice,” she said.
The workers chanted songs against Mapeto Wholesalers and carried placards one of which read “No to K73 million” in an apparent reference to the contentious price at which the consortium bought the company.
They also chanted that they did not want the company to be taken by Asians because “most employers of Asian-origin have never shown social responsibility for their workers.”
An employee, Titus Nambazo, said no one was happy with the sale of the company.
“The Privatisation Commission has called this company scrap and we want to prove to them that we can make profits from this scrap without any help,” said Nambazo.
Mwapasa said DWS management and staff are not objecting to the privatisation process but the K73 million price to be paid in 10 instalments which she described as “a big joke.” She said the right price was “at least K300 million.”
Said Mwapasa: “We are convinced this is a bad deal. We don’t think as a country we should be mishandling assets the way this transaction has been conducted.”
PC executive director Maziko Sauti-Phiri said in an interview the discharging of the workers’ court injunction last week paved way for the handover and the Commission is at liberty to handover the assets to the new owners.
Asked when the commission intends to do the handover following Thursday’s disruption, Sauti-Phiri said: “As soon as possible.”
Sauti-Phiri, who described Stevens’ assault as “unfortunate on a person on lawful government duty”, also said the commission has no capacity to defuse the tension at the company and would rely on other arms of government to assist.
A press release issued by the PC on Thursday said maximising proceeds from the Whitex deal was not a major objective hence the price receivable was awarded much less weighting in the evaluation criteria.
The statement also says the scale is tipped in favour of concluding the Whitex transaction as failure to do so will tarnish the image of Malawi as an investment destination.
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