Sebetela denies TNMC favours expatriates

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Friday March 5, 2010 00:00

Sebetlela was answering questions at the Francistown City Council (FCC) full council meeting where the councillors posed this question as one of the concerns raised by Francistown residents.

Sebetlela told the council that the mine has more local employees than expatriates. He asserted that only six percent of the TNMC employees were expatriates, though he could not speak for their main contractor Moolmans Mining Company.

'At Tati Nickel Mining Company we have 1,000 employees and only six percent of these are foreigners, while the rest are Batswana. I cannot speak for Moolmans but I think their numbers are just about the same as ours,' he said.

Sebetlela had earlier told the council that TNMC employs 1,000 people, while Moolman's employs about 900 people, bringing the number of employees to more than 2,000 if the minor contractors of the mine are included.

The mine boss further assured the council that the rumours that the mine employed mostly foreigners was simply not true but as for people who were using bribes to get jobs he could not dispute but requested council for help in this matter.

'If anyone knows people who accept favours for jobs they should let us know immediately,' he said.

He said that the hiring process at the mine was quite transparent as they worked with the labour department. He said that even though at times the mine has to source for help from expatriates they always give Batswana first priority.

'We sign with the contractors but we cannot tell them who to hire. All we do is make sure that everyone, who is on our premises, has the right permits to be there. We have not had a problem but if anyone knows anything that we do not know they should let us know,' he added.

The councillors however maintained that the mine was not giving Batswana adequate opportunities as it is supposed to.