04 Apr 2018

Parliament has approved supplementary funds amounting to P430 million for the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security to settle legal claims by Norilsk Nickel Group (NNG) against the BCL Group.

Requesting for supplementary funds recently, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Kenneth Matambo explained that the claims came after BCL Group did not fulfill terms of the purchase agreement to buy a stake in the Nkomati Mine in South Africa. He added that the settlement agreement was intended to avoid a potentially protracted, expensive and uncertain litigation process across multiple jurisdictions.

Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Advocate Sadique Kebonang, said it made business sense to pay the P430 million settlement instead of going through the litigation process which could see government ending up with an exposure of P3 billion. 

“It also makes another business sense because without payment of that amount, you would never be able to sell Tati,” said Advocate Kebonang, stating that selling Tati would help government to recoup some money.

Tati East MP, Mr Samson Guma also supported the request but condemned BCL management for putting government in such a situation. 

The legislator asked for further investigations on what actually led to the collapse of the organisation, saying “We do not want a similar situation to happen in other institutions where government has put a lot of money. We need to tighten up our oversight roles including Parliament, to scrutinise further on what we may see not to be right because the amount of money that we are paying on BCL right now is too high.” 

Despite supporting the request for supplementary funds, Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse accused government of misleading the nation about the reasons why BCL was liquidated.

He claimed that BCL was liquidated because government feared a legal tussle with Norilsk but not the position advanced by government that the mine was unsustainable. 

“Had it not been the threat by the Russians (Norilsk) to liquidate BCL then BCL would not have liquidated,” said the MP, adding that government should have negotiated the settlement before liquidating BCL. 

Francistown South MP, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi expressed concern about the amount of money that would be used to pay Norilsk to cover for BCL blunders while the nation was facing a lot of economic challenges. 

The legislator therefore called for financial penalties against officials involved in the Nkomati Mine deal which put government in litigation trouble. 

Boteti West MP, Mr Slumber Tsogwane and Specially Elected MP, Mr Eric Molale said the money should be released to pay the settlement agreement because the deal for Nkomati Mine had failed to materialise. ENDS