RioZim Limited chief executive officer Mr Rajgopal Swami has stepped down after a turbulent era at the helm of the troubled diversified mining company.
In a candid farewell address to staff, Mr Swami offered an unreserved apology for months of unpaid salaries that severely disrupted employee livelihoods.
His departure comes as the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE)-listed resources group continues to execute a broader executive realignment aimed at stabilising operations following the dismissal of corporate rescue application by workers and the recent resumption of gold production at key assets.
Under the revamped administrative setup, veteran investment strategist Mr Caleb Dengu was appointed board chairman, tasked with driving institutional governance.
Executive director Mr Vinit Saxena is taking over from Mr Swami.
The leadership transition follows one of the most difficult chapters in the company’s history, during which acute foreign currency shortages, hyperinflation, severe grid power shortages and mounting debt nearly brought operations to a complete standstill.
In his farewell address to workers, Mr Swami reflected openly on the personal cost borne by the workforce during the company’s hardest years.
“It is impossible to sum up in a short note what these years have meant to me,” Mr Swami said.
“I came into this role believing in what RioZim could be and above all in the people who kept those operations running. I still believe in that. But I also know, with complete honesty, that the years behind us have asked more of you than any company has the right to ask of the people who work for it.”
Confronting the grim realities of operational downtime, Mr Swami acknowledged that administrative failures directly impacted employee households.
“I know what it means for salaries to go unpaid for months at a time while your need could not wait.
“I know what it meant when power was cut at site over debts that were not of your making, and when equipment breakdowns and shrinking production put your jobs and your sense of a future here in doubt.
“The uncertainty of these years… did not stay in the boardroom. It followed you home and households carried burdens they should never have had to carry, for reasons that they had nothing to do with.
“I carry that knowledge with me and I am sorry for the share of it that fell on you during my time as CEO.”
The financial squeeze on RioZim reached a boiling point over the past two years, triggering strike actions, plant care-and-maintenance shutdowns, and legal attempts by labour groups—principally the Zimbabwe
Diamond and Allied Minerals Workers union (ZDAMWU)—to place the miner under court-sanctioned corporate rescue.
Mr Swami paid tribute to the plant operators, underground crews and technical staff whose endurance kept the company afloat when maintenance budgets ran dry.
“Through all of that, you showed up,” Mr Swami noted.
“You kept the company running, kept the mines safe and kept faith with a company that, in truth, did not always keep faith with you in return.
“That is not a small thing. It is, in fact, the only reason RioZim is still standing today for the new CEO coming after me to lead.
“Whatever the record shows about the difficulties of these years, I want it also to show that they survived because of the extraordinary patience, loyalty and quiet endurance of the people who make up this company.
“That is you, and your families, who bore so much of the cost, without ever being asked whether you were willing to.”
Despite the painful legacy of the downturn, Mr Swami leaves at a point where the tide appears to have turned on several critical operational and legal fronts.
Chief among these milestones is the full settlement of historic salary backlogs that had accumulated during production outages.
On the legal front, the lingering threat of corporate rescue was definitively cleared after both the High Court and the Supreme Court dismissed ZDAMWU’s petitions.
Operationally, the group’s flagship gold producers are returning to output. At Renco Mine, production has fully resumed following steady power supply and supply chain normalisation. Meanwhile, at Cam & Motor
Mine in Kadoma, the key asset poured its first gold in May after being shut down for nearly two years.
With international gold prices hovering near historical highs, Mr Swami expressed strong optimism that incoming leadership will inherit a significantly healthier enterprise than the one he managed through the crisis.
“I leave with real optimism for what comes next, not just hope,” Mr Swami said.
“Renco is producing again, Cam & Motor has reopened, the legal cloud that hung over this company for the better part of a year has lifted, and gold prices are near record highs.
“RioZim starts its next chapter from firmer ground than it has stood on in a long time. It has been the greatest honour of my career to lead this company and to work alongside you.”
=herald
