05 Feb 2018

Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, Mr Tshenolo Mabeo says it is crucial to have sustainable human resource locally.

Addressing mine workers representatives and management of Karowe, Orapa, Letlhakane, Damtshaa, and Firestone mines recently, Minister Mabeo said government’s expectation was to see most jobs occupied by Batswana.

Mr Mabeo noted that government should be furnished with details of any insufficient skill in any field, saying review of exempted positions would be conducted on a consistent basis. Permits, he said, will only be granted on basis of scarcity.

Minister Mabeo also expressed concern over the tendency to outsource labour outside the country for expertise in fixing of machineries, stating that it was essential to have such kind of expertise locally.

He said it was important to have an employment data, saying students in vocational colleges should receive quality education so that demand could be met.

“We should produce job-ready graduates,” he said, citing that syllabus should be 70 per cent practical and 30 per cent theory.

He stated that it could be cheaper to recruit if local market could have skills required in the mines.

Mr Mabeo said thne responsibility of the ministry was to ensure good labour relations between employer and employee, saying there should be a give-and -take atmosphere.

Employees, he said, should be updated and briefed on business performance for better understanding in cases of decline in sales or production.

In addition, he said it was critical to adhere to workplace safety standards to avoid issues of compensation.

He explained that his office was inundated with many cases of compensation, which were also on backlog, adding that people experienced challenges in their endeavour to get compensation.

Some people, he said, needed compensation to sustain their lives due to loss of jobs, emphasising harmonious working relations and a collective voice with employees was essential.

For his part, the general manager of Orapa Letlhakane and Damtshaa mines, Mr Bakani Motlhabani advised that the issue of diversity should also be considered rather than employing locals only.

Mr Motlhabani said the company had minimum standards that local companies enter into when they sign a contract.

He said there were also issues of social performance to comply with, in cases of failure to pay employees according to stipulated laws.

When commenting, the chairperson of Botswana Chamber Mines, Mr Jack Tlhagale said retrenchment in Botswana was a problem as companies failed to make retrenchment agreements.

Mr Tlhagale said it was important to have guidelines that should be followed when processing payment.

Privatisation, he said, had led to engagement of contractual companies which were too small with very low standards, noting that many accidents were found among contractual companies.

He said it was difficult for employees of such companies to group themselves and unionise, adding that they had lots of challenges ranging from lack of accommodation, low salaries and lack of safety clothing.

Mr Tlhagale also noted that employees of contractual companies were engaged on short-term contracts, and work long hours.

He said stipulated working time was eight hours per day, but expressed discontentment with exemption made by labour, citing that 12 hours was too long for an ordinary person.

The acting commissioner, Ms Goitseone Kokorwe said it was important to have monitoring systems in place because companies such as Debswana may have the impression that the main contractor was a local company, whereas that local company had sub-contracted a foreign one. ENDS