We knew it all along � BMWU on BCL report
Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday October 20, 2017 14:57
Unionists have long maintained that BCL Mine and its various offshoots were the victims of gross mismanagement, incompetence and possible misgovernance by authorities in charge in the years leading to last year’s closure.
Provisional liquidator, Nigel Dixon-Warren, in a report currently circulating in mining circles, has recommended further investigation of the Board and management’s culpability in events leading to the group’s bankruptcy.
Yesterday, BMWU general secretary Moffat Ramokate said Dixon-Warren’s findings were no surprise the mineworkers.
“The findings of the liquidator do not differ from what we have been trying to alert government about. Since 2012, all our petitions have decried serious mismanagement at the mine and we held demonstrations against mine management, Board of Directors, Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi and the President Ian Khama himself,” he told Mmegi.
Ramokate said it was a pity that the union’s members were suffering from authorities’ mistakes and ineptitude.
“We long tried to show this to the government. We never fought government, but what is contained in the report is exactly what we wanted to bring to the attention of government to take action and avert the mine’s closure, but in vain,” he added.
He said the government would now realise that the union was not an enemy but a partner whose input should be appreciated.
Ramokate further stressed that proper actions should be taken against whoever is implicated in the situation that the mine finds itself in. “In fact, we have been making recommendations in our petitions that serious legal action should be taken against management and anybody implicated,” he said.
For his part, Selebi Phikwe mayor, Molosiwa Molosiwa said it was regrettable that government taken long to react to calls to investigate allegations of mismanagement at the mine. He said from now on government must act swiftly to such reports to avert similar situations.
“Had reaction been swift, the situation could not have been like this. It is regrettable and this is a drawback for the town when government has invested a lot even in the mine. To lose everything because of mismanagement is not right,” he added.
Molosiwa warned that the debacle was a lesson to other mines and companies on the importance of proper management and sound monitoring.