Accept reality, Kebonang tells retrenched miners
Pini Bothoko | Thursday December 1, 2016 18:00
“The decision to liquidate the mines has been taken and it’s time to face reality that you are unemployed. You are well trained, have experience and some of you are highly qualified to invest in some kind of business for survival,” he told former Tati Nickel Mining Company (TNMC) workers in a meeting.
Government placed BCL Ltd under provisional liquidation in October, tossing about 4,000 workers at BCL Mine and another 700 at TNMC into the streets.
Kebonang said the retrenchees need to find other means of survival, as there was no hope that the Mine would reopen soon. “Government is waiting for the liquidator’s recommendations on whether to sell off the mines, or come up with any other alternatives and this is something that will take months, hence the need for ex-employees to find other means of survival. “Government has many programmes meant to empower citizens and these are under-utilised.
I encourage former employees to consider utilising them. Job opportunities are limited and you need to come up with other ways of survival,” the minister said, adding that Citizen Entreprenurial Development Agency, or CEDA, was available to help. Kebonang’s utterances did not impress the axed mineworkers with one fuming representative, Keotsositse Morolong, saying workers had been promised their jobs would be preserved even during the liquidation. “We were promised that our employment would not be at risk. What happened to those promises?
We could have long prepared ourselves for this situation. The liquidation process is bad on our side as employees because it has thrown us onto the streets,” he said.
Prior to the meeting with former workers, Kebonang addressed councillors who said Francistown had been hit by abject poverty as many residents depended on TNMC for survival. The dejected councillors said the majority of the city’s people had lost jobs and could no longer contribute to its growth.
“I’m worried about the escalating unemployment rate in the city because not only the former employees will be affected, but also their families who depended on them,” Satellite South councillor, Godisang Radisigo said.
He said some members of the community and property owners who rented out houses to the mineworkers had also lost out and were struggling to find tenants. “Unemployment has increased since many people were laid off and that does not only worry the leadership of the city.
It has also had a huge negative impact on the businesses and individuals who took advantage of the mines,” Radisigo said. Tshwaragano ward councillor Gaone Majere expressed unhappiness that BCL Mine’s troubles had resulted in the closure of TNMC, which could have ‘kicked on’, taking advantage of the recently improved base metal prices.