BCL sponsored students in limbo

Lebogang Mosikare | Friday October 14, 2016 16:58

 

Most of the students are studying in local vocational institutions while others are studying in tertiary institutions in South Africa.

The students, just like the close to 5,000 workers of the copper and nickel group, will know their fate once Nigel Dixon-Warren, the High Court-appointed liquidator, presents his report in February 2017.

Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security minister, Sadique Kebonang, quashed reports that the students’ scholarship had been withdrawn or suspended.

“It is best to explain the process of liquidation before dwelling on whether the students’ scholarships were temporarily stopped or terminated,” the minister said.

“Before liquidation, BCL was run by a board and management as a normal company. BCL has now been placed under temporary liquidation and a liquidator appointed to take over the management of the group and its board.

“The liquidator runs BCL which means that he is responsible for paying creditors and employees and to keep the mine going if this is possible,” Kebonang said.

Kebonang said only after four months would Dixon-Warren reveal his findings and the students’ fate.

“The liquidator’s findings might influence him to close down BCL Mine completely or open certain shafts.

“He will also have a final decision on everybody who was officially associated with BCL. “Nonetheless, we prevailed upon him to make sure that the workers’ interests are well looked after. The workers have separate contracts with BCL and their benefits will surely differ,” the minister said.

He added: “It is not true that students who are under the scholarship of BCL were sent home after the closure of the mine. Just like the mine employees, they still have contracts with BCL that the liquidator will also take into consideration before releasing his final decision.”

Kebonang said he was not in a position to state the number of students who are sponsored by BCL for tertiary education.

“I have no idea how many students are sponsored by BCL because the situation currently obtaining at BCL happened when I was only two days in this ministry,” he said.