Armed police shut down Boseto Mine
Correspondent | Tuesday March 3, 2015 10:48
The minister had promised to give us the government’s intervention measures after he had discussed the problem with Cabinet. We are still waiting for your feedback to date.
However, before the minister arrived with government’s position, the worst happened from 2:30 am on Friday February 27, 2015. As it is tradition in our country, bad news is told on a Friday,
We are told that it started with the night shift whereby the supervisor asked employees to stop work and assemble for a special announcement. Employees assembled in disbelief and wonderment thinking that maybe a fatality had occurred at the mine.
The supervisor told the workers that he had received a telephone call to stop all operations and remove all equipment from the mine to surface and that workers would be briefed at 6:30 am by the Chief Executive Officer of the Company who was supposed to give details. The workers followed instructions, stopped all operations including plant and moved all movable equipment to surface.
Little did they know that it was not only the night shift workers who were affected, but workers in all departments and compartments of the mine. When they got to the administration assembly area the situation became clearer as they found out that it was in fact everybody and the buses were waiting. Members of the Botswana Police Force and the Directorate of Intelligence Services had already occupied the mine premises and the surrounding bushes under the command of a certain superintendent Z.S.K. Masike.
Bob Fulker, the CEO of Discovery Copper Botswana appeared as announced at 2:30 am to give details of what was going on, which he did in brief. He expressed disappointment at what they, as management had done to cause the company to close.
He said during the previous night, lenders in Australia submitted a letter of demand for an immediate payment of 103 million US dollars and that they would not accept any further proposal from alternative potential investors.
He further claimed that the Board had frozen the assets of the company and management had no authority but was only allowed to use buses to get employees out of the mine premises.
Lastly, he said, employees must leave the mine site immediately and he could not take questions from the workers on important things like availability of any written communication, where those who stayed in company accommodation would go and so on.
The Police took over when he ended to restore law and order as they claimed. Their job was to force employees into buses and they did not entertain employees’ legitimate attempts to understand their status with the company.
The buses started removing loads and loads of employees and dumped them in Maun.
At 9 am and my team arrived on the mine for a scheduled Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee (JNCC) meeting with management only to be confronted by a crowd of employees surrounded by the Botswana Police officers some in uniform from the mine entrance. There were buses and trucks all over.
The commander told us that they could not allow us to talk to the employees who are our members because the company (e jelwe)”.
He insisted that we address employees at our office. We told him that the union office was in Selebi Phikwe and he then changed and asked us to find a place outside the mine site but he could not show us exactly where in the bush.
It took us 30 minutes to get the police commander to allow us access to meet Matilda Mangole, the Human Resources Manager who was in the crowd under police escort.
The Human Resources Manager in turn claimed she did not have authority to allow us to talk to our members despite that traditionally she was the coordinator of relations and meetings. She left to appeal to the CEO about our need leaving us in the scorching heat. We stayed in the sun for nearly three hours without water to drink.
I didn’t know that in our country the police could be so inconsiderate as to prevent workers and their representatives from talking to their employer at such a critical moment of losing jobs without notice.
Fulker finally appeared with the General Manager Lawrence Manjengwa. They displayed the same negative attitude as the Police.
Fulker argued that they are not managers of DML Boseto mine anymore and had no authority to speak on behalf of the company and so could not give us permission to talk to our members who were due to board the last two buses.
He said that the voluntary administrators who had taken over the affairs of the company are in Australia. He reluctantly agreed that we meet with our members, but for not more than 20 minutes. It was important that employees explain to us what they were told at the time they were asked to stop work and to give us instructions to represent them.
Within 15 minutes of the meeting with members, Fulker had already come indicating that it was time up or else the buses would leave the employees who are themselves not supposed to be on the mine premises. The meeting was short lived.
Fulker gave us a five minute management brief on why they had to “lock out” employees and said he would not take questions as he had no authority. When Fulker left at the end of his brief, the Police Commander stepped in accompanied by another officer not in uniform to tell us that he had “finished talking” and would like everybody out of the company premises without further delay.
We all moved out because the police had become too protectionist on the side of the company and wanted to resort to use of force.
The mine gates closed.
Perhaps I need to mention that during the scuffle with the Police and the company management, I did enquire telephonically with the Director of Mines who explained that the company had reported a labour relations problem with the workers and nothing to do with closing the mine.
The Commissioner of Labour and Social Security could not be reached as usual.
Workers are in the street without any idea what their future is with the company. There is not even a letter explaining what their removal from the company premises means and what they should expect and when.
Needless to mention that the people of Toteng and Ngamiland who had hoped to do some informal business by picking crumbs from the mine have their hopes shattered over night.
Our position is that the company must be considered as a going concern having secured a viable investor and viable copper deposits of economic value. Thus, there is no justification for workers to be laid off in this manner.
DML Boseto mine operates in Botswana and should be subject to Botswana laws, which it has sidelined completely.
Currently, the company has violated Botswana laws and based everything on Australian law and the Botswana Police were there to enforce this flagrant disregard and violation of our laws in open daylight.
Government has issued the mining licence and we demand that you take concrete steps to keep the mine going and to protect employment and the economy.
JACK TLHAGALE*
*Jack Tlhagale is BMWU President