22 Apr 2014

Former president, Dr Festus Mogae has endorsed BCL Mine’s leadership development programme, which will play a major role in the mine’s  endeavour to diversify its operations under the Polaris II initiative.

He said the programme, which was introduced to the organisation’s workforce in collaboration with University of Johannesburg, would contribute to the long, medium and short term plans of the organisation.

Dr Mogae said this at a recent graduation ceremony where 81 BCL employees graduated from the programme.

“You now have the awareness, understanding and skills needed to take BCL through its ambitious path of transforming from just a mine threatened with closure over the years, into a competent and a diversified mining and related products enterprise. We now want to see such knowledge and skills in action,” he said.

Dr Mogae stated that with BCL engaged in the programme, leadership must transform the organisation into a culture of high performance, employee engagement and commitment.

He said since BCL early days of formation, the company had never been free from challenge such as operating under difficult circumstances, characterised by low ore grade, deepening shafts, high production cost, fluctuating metal prices and leadership.

The former president said he was informed that the employee engagement survey of 2010 gave positive and encouraging feedback and also highlighted a serious burning platform in the area of leadership at BCL.

“From this survey, what was disturbing was the lack of the leadership resolve and capacity to improve on employee engagement, commitment and delivery,” he said.

This realisation convinced and necessitated BCL to build sufficient organisational leadership depth in the short, medium and long term, hence the partnering of the mine with the University of Johannesburg to develop visionary leadership that would positively impact its performance in the most sustainable way, he said.

He said, “I therefore have conviction and believe, that, this graduation ceremony is one of the ways of the obtainment of optical productivity level.” 

The programme, he said, gave BCL employees the opportunity not only to develop their skills for collaborating with others, but also gave them the opportunity to learn new ideas and strategies for setting goals, formulating a project and articulating a vision.

“Through this programme, I am confident that you have discovered your individual strengths and challenges as leaders, and develop them further along with your colleagues,” he said.  That leadership has become a critical component in all businesses, especially mining or extractive industry, he said.

He also commended BCL to have seen it proper to partner with University of Johannesburg to develop committed leaders required in the implementation of its ambition of building a robust diversified mining and related products enterprise.

“Without requisite leadership, such an ambition will remain a pipe dream at the detriment of the workers,” he said. ENDS