17 Aug 2025

Selebi Phikwe Industrial Court has no permanent employee relations officer as the number of cases registered monthly does not justify having an officer stationed there permanently.

Answering a question in Parliament on Wednesday, Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Mr Nelson Ramaotwana said from April 2024 to March 2025, the Assistant Clerk of Court earned P983 in work overtime, P18,000 was spent on meals.

He said overtime for Principal Clerk of Court cost was P2,872 while the Court Bailiff overtime was P4,659, which brought the total amount expenditure to P37,000.

The minister stated that from 2024-2025, there were 36 trips made to Selebi Phikwe from Francistown out of the usual 52 per year for the reason that from the month of December 2024 to March 2025, there were no trips made to Selebi Phikwe, as there was no water in Selebi Phikwe.

Additionally, the minister said at times, the trips failed due to resources constraints, which included lack of transport.

He highlighted that had they undertaken the 52 trips, the cost to the Industrial Court would have been P46,847.20 on fuel, meals and one hour of overtime travel for two officers.

He said in the past six months from January to July, there was a total of 30 labour related cases registered, adding that it would be decided that once the number of cases registered on a monthly basis increased, the situation be reviewed to determine if having a complete and permanent staff compliment to handle the Selebi Phikwe office was justifiable.

He buttressed that the total expenditure for transport logistics related to the said officer commuting from Francistown to Selebi Phikwe every Tuesday in the past 12 months was P37,092.31.

The minister was responding to a question from Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Reuben Kaizer, who wanted to know if the minister was aware that there was no officer designated to handle employee-employer relations at the Selebi Phikwe Industrial Court.

He also wanted to know the reason for such a shortage in a town, which had about 18 200 labour force and why the vacancy had not been filled as well as the total expenditure for the transport logistics related to the said officer commuting from Francistown to Selebi Phikwe every Tuesday in the past 12 months. ENDS