18 Jun 2023

Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse has appealed to government to consider a rent-to-buy scheme as an alternative for former employees of BCL mine to buy the institutional houses they were currently occupying.

The legislator said this during a meeting held at Phikwe Primary School on Thursday. 

The meeting  follows a communication from BCL liquidator, Mr Darusha Moodliar that  the process of disposing the houses had began and that they would be given priority to buy the houses.

The former and current employees have been given 90 days to make a formal offer to the liquidator to purchase the houses. Each house has a reserve price and the buyer would be required to produce proof of financing from a financial institution. Former employees that have produced proof of finance by the cut-off date would be issued with agreements to purchase the houses which would also set out the terms on which the houses would be acquired.

One former employee of the mine, Mr Tebogo Kenosi complained that the houses were expensive considering that they had been unemployed for the past seven years.

He also said the houses were in a dilapidated state as no maintenance had been done in a long time. He added that the houses also did not conform to current standards of housing. “We owe banks a lot of money already,” he said.

Another former employee, Mr Kekgathegile Molalapaka said it was inappropriate for the liquidator to send them letters without physically consulting them. “We cannot afford to buy these houses, and we have nowhere to go after 90 days,” he said.

The liquidator explained in his statement that if former and current employees failed to buy the houses, the offer would lapse without any further reference to them, and that he would sell the houses to third parties. He said the continued occupancy of the houses would be resolved between the employees and the new owners.

Mr Keorapetse, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, said since the mine belonged to government, it was important that the same government should  intervene.

He said government should consider a rent-to-buy scheme on humanitarian grounds because former employees had no financial means to buy the houses.

He added that many former employees of the mine were unemployed and in debt. He said some have been blacklisted by banks and other financial institutions. Ends