Ex-miners� widows seek Govt intervention

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Wednesday April 12, 2017 15:46

This is the observation made at the regional gathering of the Widows’ Forum in mining sector, taking place in Gaborone this week.

The widows of Batswana men who worked in the South African mines on both governments to help them get compensations and their husband’s benefits.

Speaking at the forum, the coordinator of Botswana Labour Migrant Association (BoLAMA) Mosiami Moalifi, said the widows felt ignored and left out by the two governments despite the fact that their husbands who toiled in the mines that had become the backbone of the countries’ economies were unwittingly getting infected by mines diseases.

“The widows also feel that TEBA which recruited their husbands should be accountable to the widows with regard toothier husbands benefits. They feel Botswana TEBA office staff needs capacity training on how to respond to their grievances,” she said.

She said she once fell victim to the TEBA administration lapse, which she felt needed to be capacitated, stating that most staff at TEBA were not Batswana. She said the ex-mine workers and their families in the country who could not access their retirement provident funds found it difficult to access their benefits.

Moalifi explained that some of them suffered from mine occupational diseases and had infected their widows with diseases such as HIV and other related diseases. She added that some of the former SA mine workers were ignorant of the law and their rights.

“The situation is bad as some former mine workers and their families in Botswana who can’t access their retirement provident funds. Their widows could not educate their children properly because they didn’t receive any money. You would also find that their husbands were under paid at the mines,” she said.

She  further explained that 21 widows did not receive any compensation money for burial and only one said she received the money because her husband died due to a rock-fall. She also stated that 11 widows were aware that their husbands were owed post employment benefits when they died while the other 11 widows others were unaware.

“The challenges that these women faced are that they did not know how much their husbands were earning because in the past women were expected to be innocent, obedient and respectful towards their husbands. Their husbands never discussed their remuneration with them,” she said.

The director of Ditshwanelo, Alice Mogwe said they had been working with ex-miners, their widows and dependent children through the Silicosis Gold Mining Compensation Project in 2012. She said the project’s main goal was to obtain compensation on behalf of Batswana men who contracted or died from silicosis and other occupational diseases whilst working in gold mines in SA.

“There has been much research conducted, which has shown that miners who migrated to SA to work in the mines, were classified as labour migrants. Migration is a feature of Southern Africa, however, not enough has been done about it by the way of people-centreed policies and practices.

It has been shown in a number of studies that migration has been beneficial to the hosting state, especially economically, for example through use of cheap labour, development of infrastructure and others,” she said.

Mogwe added that consequently, SA mining industry benefited immensely from the 60 percent of labour force from neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique.

She also said it was common practice that upon the termination of their employment, ex-miners returned home with either lump sum of money or at times empty-handed, but with an understanding that their accrued employment benefits would be given to them at some time in the future.