By Mulengera Reporters
The Government of Uganda officially invested up to Shs750bn into the Matugga-based DEI Pharmaceuticals manufacturer, which earned Ugandans a shareholding of 9% in the business. This PPP decision was controversial from the very inception as a significant number of MPs protested and questioned the prudence of doing such a thing.
Andrew Mwenda, a renowned Museveni supporter, recently disputed the prudence of investing so much money in such a white elephant and predicted that Uganda’s economy will soon be collapsing because of the parasitic PPP relationships similar to the one existing between the GoU and Magoola, a controversial scientist/researcher. The motor-mouthed Andrew Mwenda also cited Amina’s Atiak Sugar and the Lubowa hospital project among others.
Yet even after landing such a huge jackpot of Shs750bn, DEI proprietor Mathias Magoola has continued to struggle paying workers at the plant, whose financial crisis means that the badly-needed hydroxea medicine for sickle cell patients won’t be promptly manufactured.
Mulengera News has seen an official email confirming that the DEI Pharma management admits that staff have not been paid their monthly salary since January. The emailed message to staff was sent out by the Human Capital or HR department after staff lost their cool and went on strike effective Thursday this week.
The striking staff say that they are tired of the insensitivity and endless empty promises that are repeatedly made to them by management. They are also angry that even after an expatriate CEO was recently brought in from India to replace Magoola, the situation hasn’t gotten any better.
The company, which used to supply meals to the factory workers long stopped after they went unpaid for months. This meant Magoola having to put up with hungry and therefore angry workers.
After their NSSF remittances-related questions went unresponded to, many staffers stopped coming for work on grounds that they had borrowed daily transport up to the point of not being able to borrow anymore.
Some had salary loans and the banks and money lenders have had to take their vehicles and the small plots of land they had bought in the small bu-estates in the Matugga neighborhood.
Even some Governing Board members have since been resigning fearing to soil their reputation by being part of a company that lacks corporate governance principles to extent of exploiting workers while subjecting them to modern day slavery and servitude which even the Constitution of Uganda prohibits. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
