75 JOBLESS AS 2 GALP RETAILERS CLOSED

MBABANE – Seventy five employees of two Galp Filling Stations lost their jobs yesterday, as Chairman of the Swaziland Fuel Retailers Association Nurane Calu closedown business.

The filling stations are Sakhula at Eveni in Mbabane, and Big Tree at the Matsapha Industrial Site. They were officially shutdown at 6pm.
Calu, in an interview, described it as a professional decision in calling it a day in the petroleum industry in which he had been active for about 15 years. This was after a decision of the Supreme Court that went against him two days ago.

He was at loggerheads with Galp Swaziland over the latter’s new franchise agreement which he declined to sign because it was one sided and generally took away the rights of Galp fuel retailers.
Galp Swaziland, as a result, wanted to permanently sever business ties with Calu over their differences on the agreement. This was because he and other retailers had failed to meet the requirement of signing by the deadline of January 30.

Some eventually signed at that time but Calu stood his ground, hence the matter went to court. 
“After a family meeting, I closed my businesses today as I was against liquidating them. This means that I will pay all the employees their terminal benefits as we part ways. The court decision instructed me to liquidate within 30 days, but for me it would have been too costly to carry on with business. Liquidation would have protected me from paying employees their dues. I preferred to pay,” explained Calu.

He said it was a sad day not just for him and his employees, but for the petroleum industry as well, particularly fuel retailers. Calu said the lack of legislation protecting retailers among other players, was exposed.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: