27 Nov 2017

Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse has tabled a motion calling for government to pay retrenchment packages to former BCL mine employees.

Presenting the motion in Parliament recently, Mr Keorapetse said though there was no law compelling government to pay the retrenchment packages, the dire situation into which the former employees had been thrown by the mine’s closure necessitated that government make a public policy decision and make the payments to alleviate the suffering of the concerned.

He said the absence of any law compelling government to pay the retrenchment packages did not mean that there was anything that precluded the making of such payments. 

Mr Keorapetse pointed out that while government had promised the former employees soft landing through among others, accommodating them for 12 months in BCL houses, payment of school fees for their children and payment for utilities, there was need for much more to have been done as the one month salary, leave days and bonus payments that the former workers had been afforded had proven insufficient to cover their obligations.

The MP said currently creditors were threatening some of the former BCL employees with civil imprisonment, a situation that he observed called for urgent assistance of the former workers.

He said as a result of the financial difficulties that the former workers were facing, some had, because of their failure to deal with the situation, committed suicide.

Further, MP Keorapetse pointed out that some of the mine’s former employees who had suffered injuries while under its employ were not being afforded specialist medical attention on time at public hospitals as would have been the case had they been under the care of the BCL hospital.

He said they were now being made to wait for months without end before they could be given the specialist medical attention that they required.

Debating the motion, Maun West MP, Mr Tawana Moremi said it was on the basis of the promises that government had made to the former workers that they had developed some legitimate expectation.

He said some had as a result of those promises gotten into further financial obligations, something that threw their lives into further disarray.

He said the refusal by government to hold onto technicalities in deciding not the pay the former employees retrenchment packages was tantamount to trivialising the suffering of former BCL employees.

MP for Gabane-Mmankgodi, Major General Pius Mokgware also concurred with the need to pay the former mine employees.

Maj. Gen. Mokgware said government was taking the issue lightly despite it touching on the lives of its people.

Specially Elected MP, Mr Kenneth Matambo dismissed the argument that government was being inhumane to the former BCL employees.

He said government had for years acted humanely by not allowing BCL mine to close when for the bulk of the years of its existence, it had not performed well.

Opposing the motion, Mr Matambo, who is also the Minister of Finance and Economic Development noted that government had not made any promise to the former workers to pay them retrenchment packages.

In response, Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Advocate Sadique Kebonang said the decision to liquidate the BCL mine had neither been rushed nor impulsive.

He said investigations had shown that the mine was not safe, a situation that he said had prevailed for years. In addition, he said it had also become clear that it was no longer viable due to mineral depletion.

Advocate Kebonang said of the 44 years of BCL’s existence, the mine had been profitable for only three years.

That, he said was proof that the mine did not make a business case, hence the decision by government to finally shut it down.

The minister, who is also Lobatse MP also pointed out that all the copper mines in the country were not performing well as they were all either under care and maintenance or had been closed.

He said there had been no noise regarding the closure of the other mines since they were privately-owned, saying it was unfair on government for there to have been such outcry at the closure of BCL mine simply because it was state-owned.

He said it was unfair to describe government as insensitive to former employees when a lot had been done to sustain its very existence for the 44 years of its life.

Advocate Kebonang who noted that the former employees were not entitled to retrenchment packages, said it was not true that the workers had not been given the soft landing as mentioned by the mover of the motion.

He said such assistance had been done through the availing of accommodation to the former workers as well as utilities and school fees payments.

He said as for access to services from the mine hospital, it was worth noting that the facility being part of the mine’s assets, also fell under the care of the liquidator at the closure of the mine.

When Parliament adjourned, MP Keorapetse was yet to respond to fellow legislators’ debate on the motion. ENDS