BMWU battles to salvage miners� benefits
Ryder Gabathuse | Thursday October 13, 2016 18:00
BMWU president, Jack Tlhagale stated yesterday that they have started assisting miners to file whatever claims they have from the employer through the court appointed liquidator, Nigel Dixon-Warren
“We are currently engaged in the process of assisting our members complete the forms as we know they have varying circumstances,” he said, indicating that in past experiences miners had left empty handed.
When the Boseto and Mowana mines were liquidated about a year ago, workers left the mining houses without any benefits.
Tlhagale indicated that as a union, they have a retrenchment agreement with the BCL Mine which states that whatever happens they will approach the liquidator and claim employees’ dues.
He was concerned that the decision to liquidate both BCL and the TNMC’s Phoenix mines has diametrically disrupted the lives of the people.
“We have already started the process by compiling information and then approaching the liquidator.
The Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi had said that there will be a parallel process to weigh the impact of the liquidation in the lives of the miners and the town of Selebi-Phikwe and the region,” he said.
BMWU has vowed to continue with the campaign of reaching out to the people and showing them that there is an alternative to the liquidation of the mines.
They have arranged meetings amongst others with the leadership of the opposition parties under the ambit of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and the Botswana Congress Party (BCP).
“What we are saying is that the decision to liquidate the mines is not a good one.
If the government wanted to get rid of its shares from the BCL and Tati mines, it could have sold them (shares) without necessarily closing the mining operations,” Tlhagale insisted.
He insisted further that liquidation does not make business sense after all.
If indeed the government wanted to pay its creditors, Tlhagale felt that it should have sourced money from elsewhere.
Tlhagale noted that closing the mine to raise the funds required to finance the debts – choking BCL mine and its subsidiaries – did not make business sense.
“It’s akin to killing a cow to sell its meat when in actual fact one could sell a cow without necessarily killing it.”