30 Jul 2026

Government of South Africa has assisted Botswana government with locating Provident Fund Administrators that have pensions, gratuities and annuities belonging to Batswana ex-miners.

Answering a question in Parliament on Wednesday on behalf of the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, the Minister of Environment and Tourism Mr Wynter Mmolotsi stated that a company known as Tshiamiso Trust had been appointed to facilitate compensation for ex-mine workers who contracted occupational lung disease during their time of work.

He said essentially, there were two areas of funds recovery in the form of compensation for occupational diseases and pension and annuities.

Mr Mmolotsi said that a total of 3 838 individuals were assessed for occupational lung disease of which, 1 933 were eligible for compensation.

He said all the 1 933 individuals had been paid their compensation for occupational lung disease at a value of R206,014, 007, approximately P169, 081, 422.

However, he said assessments continued to be done as customers visited the testing center every now and then.

The minister alluded that for the Okavango and North West districts, an outreach to locate qualifying individuals for pension payments was conducted from July 12-17, 2026.

He noted that a total of 32 claimants were identified and were being processed while the process of identification continued.

Mr Mmolotsi said the value for the 32 claims was R1, 885, 876 approximately P1, 547, 790.

He assured parliament that identifying ex-mine workers was an ongoing process and the ministry would continue to engage customers across the country including Maun, Shakawe and Gumare through various platforms and Kgotla meetings as the process unfolded.

Mr Mmolotsi said the schedule for such meetings would be communicated to all places of visit to District Commissioners offices of respective area MP.

He was responding to a question from the MP for Maun East, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile, who had asked the minister to brief Parliament on the progress made in the compensation and payments made to former workers of South African mines, with emphasis on the total number of individuals identified for payment in Botswana so far.

He asked him also to state the number of those who had been paid as well as, the number of those whose claims were currently being processed for different stages of the payment process and how many of those paid and those still being processed were from the Okavango and North West Districts.

The MP further asked whether the minister would arrange feedback through Kgotla meetings for ex-miners in Maun, Gumare and Shakawe and if so, when, and if not, why not. ENDS