14 Mar 2017

BShutting down of some of the mines in the surroundings of Francistown last year has not only left a negative impact on employees who were engaged in these mines, but others too .

The shut down has also dealt a hard blow to the business community, especially those who are into providing mining related services and one such is a 34 year-old Mr Tlhabologo Chingapane, whose company trades as Horizon Investments.

His services include conveyor belt splicing, sand blasting, supplies of different mining equipment and several others.

Mr Chingapane is a Youth Development Fund beneficiary who has a promising project that does not sustain his livelihood only but has also managed to meet the objectives of playing a leading role in efforts to create employment opportunities for other fellow youth.

He has a total of 29 youths under his belt, who are engaged in different areas such as artisan, labours and several others.

Ever since he started operating in 2013, all has been going well to an extent that he managed to fully re-pay back his loan just a year after he started.

Things however took a nasty turn late last year when some of the mines he had signed maintenance contracts with were faced with challenges that led to their shutdown.

“This was the most paining experience. I felt like the whole world was crumbling on me as I had just signed a two year maintenance contract with Tati Nickel Mining Company. I was very hopeful that I would benefit in several ways through this contract,” he said.

Mr Chingapane said this shut down led to the termination of his contract and this negatively affected his day to day operation of the business, as profits drastically dropped.

With this challenge, he was forced to lay off 23 of his employees so as to be able to sustain the business with the little resources he was left with. ENDS