06 Jul 2016

Vice President Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi has assured BCL Mine workers that government will conduct thorough investigations on declining safety issues affecting the Selebi Phikwe copper and nickel mine which employs around 5 000.

Addressing a score of Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) members at the Notwane Football Club ground in Gaborone yesterday, Mr Masisi said reputable consultants had been engaged to establish causes of accidents that had claimed several lives at the mine over the last few months.

BMWU workers travelled to hand over a petition to the Vice President in which they complained about declining safety conditions at the mine. Mr Masisi, who received the petition from BMWU president Mr Jack Tlhagale, stated that government would do everything in its power to protect miners’ lives.  

He said appropriate action would be taken if investigations were to implicate anyone from the BCL Mine management concerning the accidents that had occurred at the mine. 

“We don’t want employees to feel unsafe at work. We don’t want a situation where miners go to work asking themselves whether they are going to be able to come back to their families,” the Vice President said as he received the petition.

Mr Masisi rejected the idea, portrayed by speakers before the handing-over of the petition, that government was antagonising workers unions. He said instead government recognised workers’ right to unionise.

 “Government encourages the right of workers to unionise because it is through unions that workers can talk about their working conditions. We encourage workers to speak freely about the challenges they face in their work places,” he said. He also said government was working hard to safeguard jobs at BCL Mine despite financial hardships currently experienced by the mine. 

Reading the petition before handing it to the vice president, Mr Tlhagale said the petition was a follow up to the two that the union had made before to BCL board chairperson Dr Akolang Tombale in 2014 and the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources Mr Kitso Mokaila earlier this year. He said the union complained about the poor safety situation in those two petitions but nothing had been done.

Mr Tlhagale said the union stressed to Mr Mokaila during a meeting on 10 May that the safety situation at the mine required urgent government intervention.

He said despite their pleas a fatal accident happened on 29 May in which four miners lost their lives while six others were left badly injured. “In this accident, the rope of the General Man Transporter (GMT) was diagnosed and declared to be worn out on 30 November 2015 by technicians and management did nothing to replace it in reasonable time until it snapped six months later after the test. The significance of this accident is among other things that a delay even by a day can have disastrous consequences,” Mr Tlhagale said.

Mr Tlhagale said more accidents had occurred after that fatal one, including on 20 June in which a workman sustained a broken pelvic bone, and on 27 June in which a worker sustained a broken leg after a fall of a rock.

He said 15 employees died on duty at BCL Mine over the last five years and many sustained serious injuries with some of them becoming permanently incapacitated.

“It is important to realise that accidents do not only result in deaths and injuries but do cause utmost suffering to families and dependents of the affected,” he said.

Scores of BMWU members carried placards asking for dismissal of BCL Mine general manager Mr Dan Mahupela who they blamed for the problems affecting the mine. They also asked for the return of former mine head Mr Montwedi Mphathi.ENDS