Tati Mine woes hit property market
Ryder Gabathuse | Tuesday October 11, 2016 18:00
TNMC issued a cautionary notice sometime in February that due to depressing business conditions precipitated by the incessant fall in metal prices, the mining house will be forced to vacate its employees from company houses-as the company intends to sell them.
It was further communicated that leases for properties will be ended. True to this notice the leases were terminated recently forcing employees to fend for themselves. TNMC currently has around 600 employees with the beleaguered BCL Mine as its parent-mining house.
One of the private property owners who had housed some TNMC employees, Horse Shoe Complex, was badly affected by the TNMC decision as they have lost a reliable customer in the up market area located along the old Matsiloje road.
“It was a tough decision to us as it has hit us directly into our coffers as we had a long-term contract with TNMC and they paid us very well,” Horse Shoe Complex operations manager, Bhekezela Gwebu told Mmegi Business yesterday. Since TNMC was paying for its employees, Gwebu indicated that they hardly encountered problems more so that they provided a 24/7 security at the property.
“Now, we were forced to accommodate individuals whose affordability varies from person to another,” he said indicating that they were forced to slash their rentals as affordability was a challenge and they could not keep unoccupied premises.
He was quick to reflect that they are not the only ones affected by TNMC’s cancellation of leases as other service providers like security companies are also on their knees without jobs. Whilst Gwebu was concerned that they still had unoccupied houses, the problem is compounded by the reality that already they have tenants who have defaulted on their rentals even after slashing the rentals to accommodate them. “As a business, we had long-term plans based on the rentals income from the reliable TNMC as we are currently servicing loans for the very complex that is not fully occupied.” Again, Gwebu stated that they have been running an onsite contract laundry services targeting TNMC contract workers who have mostly been accommodated at the Diggers Inn Lodge.
“Now that the TNMC is expected to close shop, for us the ripple effect of the mine’s troubles is going to be enormous as it means in the long term the lodge might have a very low occupancy rate,” Gwebu said.
At a complex known as Gwizi, which was also vacated by a good number of TNMC employees, the administrator who was identified only as Joseph could only say that despite the terminated TNMC lease, “we are surviving.”
Joseph said yesterday that after the departure of TNMC employees last July, “we now expect some people who have already paid their rentals to occupy.”
It was clear that although they experienced some hiccups, it was only short-lived. It however, remains clear that individual occupants are not as reliable as companies.
The impending closure of the TNMC Phoenix operation comes some months after the African Copper Mine closed two mining operations outside Francistown, the Thakadu and Dukwi mining operations. At the TNMC site, Aveng Moolmans shaved about 600 jobs from the Phoenix mine. Workers on fixed contracts were forced to exit the employ of the mine at different stages. In an earlier interview, PR Executive Consulting economist, Sennye Obuseng was worried that the developments in the mines around Francistown has a potential to slow down the rate of growth of the local economy.
“Firms that depended on the mine will suffer decline in business and some will close shop. Because of the mine’s linkages to the local economy, the region will shed far more jobs than 600, or whatever the final figure shall be lost at Tati Nickel,” said Obuseng.