Africa-Press – Malawi. The relationship between workers from Peoples Trading Centre (PTC) a former subsidiary of Press Corporation Limited (PCL) and the company’s new owners, Tafika Holdings Limited, (THL) has turned hostile, with the former seeking government’s intervention in developments emanating from the sale of the company.
understands that the employees have written the Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Minister of Labour, seeking reversal of the sale transaction and among other things, non-payment of salaries and PCL’s obligation to provide personal benefits to the employees.
Both Minister of Labour Vera Kamtukule and CFTC spokesperson Innocent Helema confirmed having received a letter from PTC employees that they are working on separately.
“We are currently engaging with all stakeholders involved in the matter from PCL, Tafika Holdings, Ministry of Trade and the employees themselves so that this matter can be brought to its logical conclusion. Employees cannot be left hanging like this,” Kamtukule said.
A senior management member at PTC, who opted for anonymity, confided in The Daily Times that THL Chief Executive Officer Arson Malola has been lying to the media that he has made significant investments in the company. They said currently 615 employees of the company have not been paid for three months and some for two months since the transaction.
He further said the transaction is no longer viable because two commercial banks where THL applied for loans to secure the K6 billion they were expected to invest in the company declined to offer them the money due to poor creditworthiness.
“The fact is, not even one tambala has been put in the business from them (THL), people here have not been paid for three months and if there was any money we could have received our salaries. This transaction is very complicated, there were some people at PCL that did due diligence and understood that this bidder was not good for business and were against the transaction, they ended up being fired,” the source said.
But in a telephone interview, Malora wondered what such employees aim to achieve by calling for the reversal of the sale transaction. He claims that such people are the ones that brought PTC to its knees through the theft of shop items and money that PCL had been injecting into the business to resuscitate it.
“The K6 billion that THL was going to inject was purely for creditor’s debts but then it could have meant that there couldn’t be any working capital to buy stock and pay for day-to-day expenses so we applied for an overdraft at the two commercial banks for working capital.
“The banks expressed that they felt PTC was dying. They believe that PTC having the same employees as they had before there was nothing that was going to change. Basically they are willing to give us the money only after they have seen substantial changes in PTC, as for me that was fair enough because I understand where they are coming from,” Malola said.
He added that there must be something the employees are hiding in requesting a reversal of the transaction. Meanwhile, THL is today going to the commercial court to apply for a protection order to allow for the re-organisation of the company such that it can operate without interference from its debt obligations.
On February 18, 2022, PCL and THL signed a sale agreement transferring ownership of PTC to the latter at a consideration of K6 billion that was meant to service the company’s debtors’ arrears.
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