VICE President Phelekezela-Mphoko has refuted media reports claiming that his supermarket chain, Choppies fired about a 100 workers using the contentious July 17th Supreme Court judgment.
Mphoko sat in Parliament along with his colleague Emmerson Mnangagwa while MPs debated amendments to the labour law.
As Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga concluded her contributions to the debate and called for the re-instatement of all workers who lost their jobs, opposition MPs threw cat-calls at Mphoko, indicating his company had also joined in the jobs carnage.
“Let us assume the President ascends to this Bill on Thursday and on a Friday, it is law. What does it mean for the 20 000 to 25 000?” Mushonga queried.
She added: “I would love to see them going back to NRZ and ZBC, sitting there and no one raising an issue.”
From the floor, some MPs interjected saying “and Choppies!”
But Mushonga responded.
“Mr. Speaker I do not know about Choppies, I have never been to Choppies and I cannot speak on behalf of Choppies,” she said amid laughter.
At this point Mphoko retorted: “No! Choppies did not fire anyone.”
Mphoko is said to have considerable shareholding in Choppies, a supermarket chain with roots in neighbouring Botswana.
The company reportedly laid off about 100 workers using the Supreme Court judgment that has resulted in over 20,000 job losses.Advertisement