16 Sep 2022

Citizen economic empowerment is one of Jwaneng mine’s top priorities, having awarded most of the jobs to locally owned companies.

Addressing Southern District virtual full council meeting on Tuesday, Jwaneng Mine General Manager, Mr Koolatotse Koolatotse said economic empowerment was a reality for them.

He said jobs, such as drilling, crushing, catering, landscaping, security as well as bus services were carried out by Batswana, with only a few, such as explosion services, still under foreign companies.

“Next year April all those jobs in the hands of foreign companies would be awarded to locals, we are converting workers to employers,” he added.

Mr Koolatotse said in preparations for underground mining, a school would be opened in Jwaneng to ready the workers for the time open pit mining starts.

He further said some students would be identified at senior secondary schools, to ensure that by the time they graduated, they would be ready for underground mining. “We passed the stage where our mining operations would be led by foreign nationals,” he added.

Mr Koolatotse said beyond 2050, the aim was to impart knowledge and developed skills on locals, to ensure that Batswana youth would be exported to run mining operations in other countries and in turn, benefit the country. He said they also empowered communities around them in many different ways, to ensure that the basic needs of life were provided.

He said in the 40 years that Jwaneng mine had been in operation, there were notable achievements such as infrastructure development.

Mr Koolatotse highlighted that the mine’s strategy was aligned to Vision 2036, as they had to be in tandem with the country’s plans.

In line with Vision 2036, he said they intended to safe lives in the production process.

He further said they would soon use solar energy to power their offices, as part of their involvement in the green economy.

He said Jwaneng mine continued to be the best in the world, having scooped gold and silver on performance of productive efficiency in 2020 and successfully defended the awards in 2021, winning, gold, silver and bronze. “We are the safest and cost effective mine in the world,” Mr Koolatotse said.

Jwaneng mine, he said also won 2021 Albert Milton award on safety amongst a lot of mining companies in the world. “In our production, we do not take short cuts, we value our communities and employees’ lives,” he said.

Mr Koolatotse said even though prices for different equipment and materials had gone up due to diverse factors, they continued to reach and exceed their targets.

Most councillors applauded the mine for ensuring that most of the work was done by local companies and employees.

They however, requested the general manager to ensure that the welfare of those working for contractors was taken into consideration. They alleged that most of them were underpaid and lived in not conducive accommodation.

They also said it was important for the mine to ensure that diamonds processing was done in Botswana to avoid exportation of jobs and buying the diamond products back at high prices. ENDS