Mineworkers slam 'cat and mouse' game over Mupane
Mbongeni Mguni | Wednesday October 29, 2025 06:00
The High Court recently interdicted the sale of the gold mine, siding with one of the bidders, Ulsan Botswana, which claimed irregularities in the process used to award Nova Africa the rights to purchase.
Nova Africa, which was offering $21 million as a once-off payment, is a newly registered company with 49% held by citizens with mining and technical backgrounds, and the balance owned by a Turkish firm. Ulsan, also from Turkey, had offered $500,000 to buy the site and said it could offer a final price of up to $15 million when it concluded its due diligence.
BMWU general secretary, Mbiganyi Gaekgotswe, said the outcome of the recent court case meant that workers would have to wait longer for their dues.
“It has been over a year since the liquidation of Mupane Gold Mine, and employees have not been paid their terminal benefits,” he said in a statement on Monday. “This legal cat and mouse is impacting employees’ lives.”
The union said it does not agree with the High Court’s ruling on the matter, as creditors, who include the BMWU, had approved Nova Africa Resources as the preferred bidder because their proposal bore an undertaking to pay all liabilities of the estate, including employees’ terminal benefits. Gaekgotswe said Ulsan Botswana had not made such an undertaking.
“Secondly, the procedures insofar as the union was concerned were followed to the letter, and the Mupane liquidation process was seamless and expeditious, but for the urgent application. “The liquidator had followed all legal processes to the approval of the preferred buyer of the mine. “As it stands, the court has interdicted the sale pending a review application which is likely to delay the completion of the sale and purchase of Mupane Gold Mine assets by the successful bidder,” he said.
The general secretary said the Mupane saga was “slowly becoming another BCL Mine situation”, where employees were likely to leave with nothing upon the conclusion of the liquidation process. The BMWU continues to plead with government to pay terminal benefits for former BCL workers, nine years after the iconic mine closed.
Gaekgotswe said it was unfortunate that the bidder who is litigating was not willing to pay employees' terminal benefits in the liquidation.
“And the one who was successful and was interdicted from buying Mupane, was going to ensure that employees’ outstanding salaries were paid. “This can happen only if the government of Botswana intervenes and ensures that the payment of Mupane workers is effected instead of allowing companies that do not have their interest at heart to delay their payout through frivolous litigation proceedings,” he said.
Mupane, previously owned by Hawks Mining, a majority citizen-owned company, has not been operating since March last year owing to serious cash flow problems and alleged mismanagement. According to the union’s estimates, Mupane owes workers a cumulative amount of P49.1 million in unpaid salaries, terminal benefits, and retrenchment packages.
Documents filed before the Master of the High Court indicate that creditors are owed more P300 million. Besides the former workers, other creditors include various utilities’ parastatals, private sector suppliers and others.