Selebi-Phikwe economy still in ICU

Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday October 26, 2018 10:31

 

The announcement has already sown seeds of hopelessness about the town’s future and more so that it comes at a time when hopes were recently raised with the false announcement that the mine would be reopened soon. All is literally not well, Selebi-Phikwe is on sickbed as the abrupt closure came when a majority of the mine employees were unprepared hence many of them are still stuck in the mine houses.

There is no announcement yet that government would pay for their stay for the next year as the current lease with government elapses in January.  The fact of the matter is that if no arrangement is made those occupying the mine houses would have to vacate them if they fail to sign new leases and commit to monthly rentals.

Unlike in the past years the residents here, especially in BCL location are as good as boycotting voter registrations and they broadly stated at the recent kgotla meetings that there is no need for them to register to vote in Selebi-Phikwe while they would be forced to leave soon. This has also been confirmed by the Independent Electoral Commission as they indicated the low turnout at the registration centres.

The local English medium schools are not spared the crisis such as Mount Pleasant.  They are even considering looking for an investor in education to utilise the premises to make use of some vacant classes. School head Edna Swaniker said unless government intervenes to run the schools then they would need an investor to meet the school halfway to keep it afloat. “We would consider an investor who is interested in education. If something can come up to attract more people to town then it would be better for our school,” she said.

The school has already lost 120 students after liquidation and currently has 27 students paid for under the care and maintenance and is facing revenue challenges and struggling to cope with the situation.

”We have not retrenched since liquidation and our revenue is extremely low. We used to pay tax from our profits, but now we are running at a loss. Parents regularly come to negotiate prices but our expenditure is high,” she said.

She noted that the situation is depressing as they expect parents to give notices when they remove their children from the school, but some relocate without even giving their forwarding addresses. She said the revenue challenge is worsened by the fact that government has not fulfilled its promise to pay school fees as the school only received part of last year’s payment and nothing this year.

Kopano School currently has 44 children paid for under care and maintenance and 37 currently paid for by government.  The school lost 168 students after liquidation. School head Levina Granger said the retrenchment would present a further huge loss for school. “As teachers we now need to work as a team to keep parents happy so that we retain our jobs.  We cannot retrench again, but we cannot increase salaries. We have increased school fees by five percent to avert a deficit for next year. To lose any student under care and maintenance would be a serious blow,” she said.

She emphasised the need for government support and said they have introduced classes for special needs students as well as building strong alumni to keep the school afloat.

Selebi-Phikwe West MP Dithapelo Keorapetse has also expressed gross disappointment over the coming retrenchment exercise at BCL and Tati. He said things will get worse for many families. He said already those under care and maintenance are poorly remunerated and work in very bad conditions and their sudden unemployment would exacerbate their already deteriorated social economic situations. 

“This basically means that Selebi-Phikwe would have more destitute, more family breakdowns and general despair. My view is that the mine must be reopened as soon as possible and that government must partly take responsibility of the rehabilitation liability of P2.8 billion because it deters investors and it is an impediment to the sale of BCL mine,” he said.

He added that in the meantime more budget should go to social services to assist the temporarily destitute from sudden unemployment.

“My position is that care and maintenance should be quickly removed from the liquidator and be assumed by either a new government vehicle or under Mineral Development Company Botswana (MDCB) until a buyer is secured. Government cannot continue to put money in liquidation with no returns. There is no justification to the taxpayer on that,” he said.

Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) is also not spared the pinch of liquidation and the coming retrenchment as it is already faced with serious revenue challenges. BCL and Tati combined were the second largest contributors to the union revenue through subscriptions. Since retrenchment the revenue from the two mines dropped from 30% to a mere one percent.

The BMWU president Jack Tlhagale said this calls for the union to diversify its revenue generation schemes so that it does not solely depend on subscriptions so that it can continue to effectively run its affairs.

He regretted that there is no statutory forum where the union can engage with meaningfully with the liquidator and as such the liquidator uses a unilateral approach in matters that should involve the union. “We received a letter informing us about the reduction of staff and we have since written back to him to seek audience and we are yet to meet. The situation is undesirable and unacceptable and it is no different from the major decision by government to close BCL and Tati Nickel,” he said.

Tlhagale said it is most frustrating that the whole situation is part of government’s failure to properly manage the mining industry in general. He said other than BCL and Tati many mines have closed down through liquidation in the last five years and cited Discovery Metals, Mowana African Copper, Ghaghoo and Lerala Diamond Mine. “This shows that government policy on administering the mining operations is non-existent and if it does then it is extremely weak. By now government should have a better policy to ensure that mines are sustainable before being issued with licenses. If the policy is not in place then this problem would persist,” he said.

He said government must ensure thorough screening of mining companies before they are issued with licences because the continuous closure of these privately owned mines shows that they were not competent enough to run the operations.

He observed that as much they are disappointed with job losses, the problem is bigger than that as it has ripple effects as they also harm the national economy. He said government must seriously rethink strategies of running the mines. “It is even worse to realise that ever since government expressed interest to reopen the mine there is literally nothing to show for it.  At the same time the mines are losing value from lying dormant for a long time.  It should concern government that more money continues to be pumped into the liquidation process with no return on investment,” he added.

He wondered where government gets money to fund operations of the dormant mining operations yet there was no money to for the mines to continue operations. “There is literally no manifestation of a caring government in all these. We had a meeting with Minister Eric Molale where among other things we proposed a statutory tripartite forum in the mining industry where we can engage and deal with issues of concern in the mining sector. Up to now we are waiting for him to come back to us,” he said.