13 Dec 2020

Debswana Diamond company as one of the leading employers and contributors to the  economy has come a long way in ensuring that citizen are trained with a view to localise the non-citizen held positions.  

The Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development Mr Mpho Balopi told Parliament that all key senior maintenance positions in the company were held by Batswana.

He clarified that the company did not have the positions of maintenance manager and maintenance specialists as some people thought but rather engaged sub-contractors from all over the world such as Majwe Mining whose parent company was from Australia. In most instances, he said

Debswana engaged expatriates in their maintenance section after failing to identify citizens in labour market. Currently he said, Debswana Jwaneng Mine had 11 non-citizens work permit holders/exemption certificates holders.

The Minister further explained that any contravention of legal appointments was addressed by the Department of Mines adding that Debswana Jwaneng Mines complied with the requirements of the legislation on legal appointments.

Mr Balopi further informed Parliament that applications were vetted by the Department of Mines to ensure that the applicants qualified and that the recruitment process did not disadvantage the citizens.

“It should also important to indicate that the mine also has external assurance process in form of audits for the verification of its legal compliance status pointing out that the last audit was conducted in September 2020 and it confirmed 100 percent compliance by the company,” he said.

He further indicated that like any other company which had employed non-citizens, it was bound by the localisation policy requirements, which  had resulted in localisation rate of over 99 per cent.

“I am not aware of the maladministration at Jwaneng Mine which comprises the safety and welfare of employees.

I am only aware that the mine is one of those entities that are committed to the safety of their workers and continue to uphold this safety culture” said the minister.

Gaborone Bonnington South Mr Christian Greeff had asked why key management positions such as maintenance manager at the Jwaneng Mine and maintenance specialists posts were held by Australians when there were highly qualified and competent Batswana engineers. 

He also wanted to know the number of work permits that the Ministry has passed on for approval and what the ministry was doing about the none compliance on the legal appointments where qualified Batswana were holding appointments to caution and allow their less qualified counterparts to remain employed at the expense of locals. ENDS