“Salaries Are a Right, Not a Gift”: Ameriworld Workers Starve as Bosses Play Games
By Elizabeth Kucherera
For Tendai (not his real name), the empty space on the kitchen table where food should be is a constant, painful reminder. For two long months, his salary from Ameriworld company has vanished.
Now, his family is vanishing too. “They are saying salary issues were resolved, last year,” Tendai whispers, his voice thick with shame and desperation. “I can not answer them. I have nothing to give. I am losing my family.”
Tendai is not alone. Since December, workers at Ameriworld – the distributors of Mahindra vehicles in Zimbabwe – say their paychecks have simply stopped. Their pleas for their earned wages – money needed for rent, school fees, and the most basic food – have been met with silence, excuses, and threats.
“We worked hard in November,” says another worker, too scared to give his name. “Everyone knows good money was made. Then December came, and they started telling us stories.” Hopes flickered when a junior colleague mentioned his union. “We waited for good news,” the worker adds. “But we are still stuck. Nothing.”
Henry Tarumbura, Secretary General of the National Union of Metal and Allied Industries in Zimbabwe (NUMAIZ), confirmed the crisis. He condemned Ameriworld’s actions as “unjustified” and lacking any consideration for their employees.
“Salary is a right, not a gift a company gives when it feels like it,” Tarumbura stated firmly in a phone interview. “Ameriworld is violating workers’ rights. How can they expect workers to produce anything when they can’t pay rent, feed their children, or send them to school?”
Tarumbura revealed he has tried repeatedly to negotiate with Ameriworld’s owner, Sanjay Babbar .
“Efforts are underway, but Babbar and his management are not cooperating. He doesn’t even comply with basic discussions. This issue must be taken to the next stage,” Tarumbura declared, signaling potential escalation like legal action
Inside Ameriworld, the story twists and turns depending on who you ask.
In a telephone interview again with the Ameriworld manager ,Ms. Shylet Chikoore ,admitted the harsh truth. She confirmed to us that worker salaries are overdue for December and January. She pointed the finger upwards: “Our boss, Sanjay, decides salaries for workers.”
*
The Ameriworld accountant,
Raymond Jack, offered a starkly different, confusing tale in a telephone call . He dismissed the workers’ suffering, claiming they were “lying” and that the company does give them “part of their salaries.” Blaming a “low” December and January business period, Jack insisted “they have no money.” Shockingly, he then attacked the workers themselves, calling them “ungrateful” for daring to join unions and speak out. “Why are they reporting in-house stories?” he demanded
This web of conflicting statements leaves Ameriworld’s workers trapped in a nightmare, asking questions with no answers:
Who is responsible, Is it owner Sanjay Accountant Raymond Jack? Manager Shylet Chikoore? Who holds the key to their survival?
Do they care and does anyone in management understand the daily agony of choosing between rent and food? The fear of losing everything, like Tendai faces
Where does the money go,If November was profitable, why is there suddenly “no money”? Is the company truly struggling, or are workers being deceived
Why the threats, why attack workers for seeking help through their union, their legal right?
The evidence on the ground is undeniable: Ameriworld is playing dangerous cat-and-mouse games with its employees’ lives. While managers contradict each other and the owner hides, workers like Tendai face eviction, hunger, and the collapse of their families.
Promises are broken. Excuses change. Salaries remain unpaid. The only constant is the deepening desperation of the people who keep Ameriworld running, now left wondering if their basic right to be paid for their labor
