City Press reports that low-cost cellphone supplier Mint Connect appears to be on the verge of collapse after its holding company CZ Technologies disinvested from the joint venture.  

The company, which supplies cheap cellphones to several retailers including Pep, Mr Price, MTN and Telkom stores, has failed to pay its employees since the company missed the August pay day.  In letters in August, the company promised but failed to pay its 34 employees that month.  Instead in a notice of retrenchment dated 15 October, Mint Connect informed its workers that, based on operational requirements, their services would be terminated immediately.  However, the financial woes appear to run deeper, with the company writing another letter on 21 October informing the employees that their outstanding salaries would only be paid once it had received funding from CZ Technologies.  The letter went on to indicate that “we will send further communication to advise on the new date once all paperwork is in place with CZ, which should be before the end of this week.”  However, three employees said they had not been paid for the past three months and were being given endless empty promises.  “They [Mint] keep on lying to us and we don’t believe them,” said one employee.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Abram Mashego at City Press

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