A tower of babel scene in Selebi Phikwe!
Michael Dingake | Tuesday October 18, 2016 18:13
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand”. So the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. ‘That is why it was called Babel ………… because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world…” (The Gospel according to the book of Genesis)
Selibe-Phikwe turned into a ‘Tower of Babel’ beginning the weekend of October7, 2016. Government officials descended on the town. They spoke in tongues. They told the Selebi-Phikwe residents, in particular the men who worked in the BCL copper mine that the mine, the mainstay of their economic lives had been placed under voluntary liquidation. In other words the mine was henceforth closed. On that one point the men spoke the same language - the copper mine would cease operations.
More government officials streamed into S/Phikwe to confirm the dark cloud that overcast S/Phikwe and to speculate what was next. Since they spoke in tongues, what they communicated was more speculative than factual. The poor workers who owned nothing but their labour power, mining the copper, heard the messengers, but couldn’t comprehend. BCL closed? What was to become of their families? What would they eat? Where would they live? They sought answers. How were they to service the numerous loans they owe to the assorted loan-givers, creditors who lend them money or services because they were employed by the BCL?
It was in answer to the questions, explicit and implicit, that more government officials arrived to speak in tongues of angels and men, inherited from the Tower of Babel of episode. Some of government officials implored the confused, distraught workers not to worry. “Though you wont be expected to report for work every day, you’ll be remunerated for relaxing at home. Twelve to 18 months paid leave; the BCL will provide!” Workers were incredulous. It was too good to be true! One MP arrived to dethrone the undeserved deception of the workers. It was a lie, the MP said in repudiation of the 12 to 18 months paid leave! Workers wouldn’t be paid 12 to 18 months doing nothing. They were to be paid only for the October month. Another arrived to clarify that in fact, the liquidator, appointed already, would be the final arbiter!’
Not only did government officials come to tie the S/Phikweans in knots, newspaper scribes: columnists, commentators and editors wrote their columns, commentaries, editorials in their divergent styles guided by their conceptions and misconceptions: Government was to blame for the situation; the manager was incompetent, corrupt, conflicted or all of those; all with eyes and even the blind could see the impending catastrophe; why couldn’t the government officials see; were they more blind than the blind? How could they sleep-walk into the booby-trap they had set for themselves? For years the, ‘You-can-trust-us Party’ floated many ideas: factory shells were constructed in anticipation of ‘foreign direct investors’ who were enticed to S/P through Financial Assistance Policy (FAP) with tax incentives and graduated subsidized salaries ; a huge scam! FDI’s rushed from SA with ‘Investment capital of used machinery,’ they had pledged as contribution.
The investment capital was invariably second hand equipment, which the FDI crooks repatriated to SA under the pretext of maintenance and repairs when the subsidised salaries term expired! With the background of the FAP experience one knew the SPEDU, Polaris jazz was a re-enactment of the Tower of Babel scene! Talk has always been cheap with Domkrag. Voluntary liquidation of national assets in one form or other has always been party policy!
Interviewed, the affected workers, bemoaned their circumstances; businesses formal and informal, big and small, expressed bewilderment; the average Motswana got a headache by hearing about the head-aches of the S/Phikweans.
One is amazed at the audacity of Dan Mahupela, manager, who from all accounts seems to be more culpable than the government officials who strutted on the collapsing S/P stage flaunting irresponsibility covered in power politics. The manager, instead of showing contrition and empathy that he misled his principals, the workers and the nation, is reported to be crowing: “I will turnaround Selebi Phikwe through SPEDU!” He is quoted as saying by a weekend newspaper. Is he the only visionary who sees the silver lining in the dark cloud over S/P. Who is he kidding?
The Bible, according to theologians was inspired by events in human history. Generally it speaks in parables we need to interpret according to our situational context. There are of course fanatics and fundamentalists who believe the bible was written by the hand of God. Those are illogical and can be ignored. However, modern man instead of building Towers of Babel, builds castles in the air. Beware, the Mahupelas and kinsfolk brandishing the banner : You can trust us!