Poverty stalks survivors of BCL Mine�s demise
Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday April 28, 2017 14:57
SELEBI-PHIKWE: It is only seven months since BCL Mine closed its doors, but the situation in the communities where former workers stayed bears all the signs of an impending calamity.
A small number of people have remained in the neighbourhoods formerly occupied by BCL Mine workers and these areas have been transformed from lively spots, to houses harbouring the faces of the hopeless, the sombre and the poverty stricken.
Many families here, stranded in one way or another from the demise of the Mine, are not sure where their next meal is coming from. Some ran businesses supplying the workers, others provided services and some were street vendors. In one way or another, everyone has been dealt a body-blow.
A Mmegi newscrew that visited homes in the neighbourhoods was greeted by growing helplessness. In some homes, heartbreaking stories of small children whose parents cannot afford to buy them milk. What the mothers in these cases do is make a solution of sugar and water to feed their babies. How long the sugar will last and what the next alternative is, is a question for another day.
In another home, a woman was forced to wean off her child at just four months, after she suffered a mental break down when her husband lost his job at the Mine. The wife is now at Sbrana.
There are few vehicles left in these areas. Former employees resorted to selling their cars at giveaway prices to cover other needs, including food. The Mine’s closure also seriously affected familial cohesion as most families were forced to take their children to the villages to stay with their grandparents who are also unemployed. In most households, only wives have remained to look after the property as well as school-going children. Husbands have relocated to villages or are looking for jobs around the country.
The situation has flipped the traditional family set up on its head. Women are now the breadwinners, with the little they earn from either selling sundry small items such as sweets or working in Ipelegeng programme. Unfortunately, women who were married to former BCL employees were denied access to poverty eradication programmes when they were offered to others, as it was believed that they were economically stable as their husbands were working.
“Mma, go thata mo malapeng a rona. Ke moka re letileng matlo a mmaene. Gatwe go bulwa leng akere gatwe ma Arabia a o rekile,” asked one lady selling sweets at the General Shopping Complex. General used to be a haven of activities and a popular drinking spot during the good days of BCL mine. Today, the area is characterised by bolted buildings, spotting huge chains and padlocks, long closed down and cobwebbed for lack of business. Utility bills used to be taken care of by the Mine, but now meters are being separated so that each of those sharing houses takes care of his/her own bill. In the midst of the harsh economic situation, families are now adjusting to the responsibility of paying their own bills.
They will have to pay a connection fee and support their own accounts.
The Mine’s closure has also opened a dark chapter in the town’s life. It is reported that some former BCL employees have even resorted to criminal means of survival, faking death certificates of their beneficiaries and making claims on the Botswana Mine Workers Union funeral policy. Mmegi is informed that while some were caught before accessing the claims, others got away with the illicit gains. One was nabbed and reported to the police, while an individual said to help produce fake death certificates is still at large in town.“Recently, the parent of a former BCL employee, who is now late, got the shock of her life, when she discovered that her late child had previously claimed money from a funeral scheme, claiming the very same parent was late,” insiders briefed on the scams told Mmegi.
Indeed, the town has become a struggle for survival for many.
The passing of six months after the closure of the Mine, also presents a dilemma to the already psychologically drained former employees, as it marks the end of the grace period that commercial banks had given them to seek alternative employment and resume servicing their loans.
The story in each household visited by the Mmegi newscrew is that ‘I have just dropped a call from the bank or they called yesterday’. At least 90% of the employees had acquired the loans that they were still paying at the time of the abrupt mine closure last October.
“Mmaetsho re tla di duela ka eng, fa re palelwa ke go reka le yone phaleche. Go raya gore re ta ya ditronkong hela,” one elderly man says.
Commercial and statutory banks are owed in the range of P3 million in loans by the now stranded mine employees and there are serious fears in the community, that mass attachments of property and civil imprisonment are around the corner.
Thakadiawa ward councillor, Evelyn Kgodungwe says the situation in her area is emotionally taxing and she has discovered during random visits that some households lack even basic necessities such as sanitary towels.
“We are appealing for them to be enrolled in social welfare programmes so that they can receive monthly food rations. “It is painful that women in my ward were excluded from social welfare programmes while other women from other areas were entitled.
“We are calling for speedy intervention from government to save the situation. “Just like government negotiated with the Botswana Unified Revenue Service not to tax former employees’ packages, negotiations must be done with banks to freeze the interest on loan.”
The Office of the President, in the meantime, has reportedly turned down an appeal by the Botswana Mine Workers Union for financial assistance or food donations for more than 5,000 employees who lost their jobs. The Office stated in a letter to the Union that it was unable to assist owing to financial limitations but wished the BMWU luck in sourcing the funds elsewhere.
The Union has had little luck in securing assistance. Since the beginning of the year, the Union has been writing letters to different businesses asking for donations in the form of money or food hampers to assist former workers.
In the letter to donors, the union submits that the closure of the BCL group came without notice and their members were not prepared to lose their jobs. It says that the situation was compounded by the fact that their members were not paid retrenchment packages and are financially incapable of supporting their families during the search for alternative employment.
“Having seen many of them who are struggling to cope, some have collapsed and others committed suicide, it is imperative that we put in place some temporary relief measures in the form of toiletries and basic food hampers for at least two months, funds permitting,” reads the letter. The union also appealed for counselling services. However the appeal for aid has not yielded impressive outcomes, says BMWU president, Jack Tlhagale, who says the major challenge has been that businesses too have been grossly affected by the BCL situation.
“We have to treat the issue carefully because if we cannot raise sufficient funds, we cannot cover all affected families and it would create chaos than solutions. “We cannot do anything without funds. The best we can do is to continue to raise more funds. The little we currently have is far too little.
“In the next BMWU Council we will ask our branches to contribute towards addressing the BCL and Tati situation. We really want to support our members’ welfare but there is also a question of sustainability. We really acknowledge that there is a serious problem,” he says.
BMWU has also organised a gala dinner in June to raise more funds towards this course.
The Union is hoping a deal to purchase the Mine comes through soon and that the BMWU is viewed as a creditor, in order for workers to be paid retrenchment packages, over and above the terminal benefits they received.
“We are waiting for the return date on the provisional liquidation to see if we will be included as creditors. We are currently allowing the legal process to continue and then we will look at all the options we have,” he says.
In the meantime, the BMWU has submitted a demand to BCL’s provisional liquidator to the effect that retrenchment packages must be paid to former employees. The response has been that “liquidation only pays contractual things”.
“The memorandum of agreement that we had signed with BCL says that retrenchment agreement is part of the contract of employment at the time of signing. We are waiting for the return date to see the position of court. We believe our members are entitled but we are now hamstrung by the fact that we should wait for the court’s decision to pursue the matter.”
The provisional liquidator, Nigel Dixon Warren says what he understands is that there was no signed agreement between the two parties. He too is waiting for the return date for the decision of the court on the various matters.
A creditors meeting will be convened and each claim will be shown before court and require proof to be classified as a creditor.Meanwhile, the households of half-empty neighbourhoods continue their struggle to survive.