Modubule Questions Liquidation Of Lobtrans

By Lekopanye Mooketsi
Correspondent | Monday February 11, 2008 00:00

The company's headquarters was located in Lobatse where many of its employees were also based. Nearly 500 jobs were affected when the company went to the wall last week. The company has been placed under provisional liquidation following a successful court application by Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank to recover debts said to be running into millions of pula.

'Many people have lost their jobs,' says Modubule. 'They have not been paid their benefits. Some of them have been paid for January only. If the company is liquidated, the affected workers are not likely to get much.' Modubule points out that although the Labour Act stipulates that workers should be paid when a company goes into liquidation, the Insolvency Act says something else, giving preference to creditors.

When addressing the affected workers recently, the provisional liquidator, John Stevens, said their jobs were on the line because the company had died. Stevens said it would only be after the liquidation process was exhausted that a decision would be made regarding whether to auction off assets of the company to settle debts with creditors and pay the workers.

'This means that your benefits will be paid in less than six months from now,' the liquidator said. Modubule says Lobtrans trucks are registered in South Africa and that Government must investigate what happened to the company. He wondered how a company which was only recently in the bidding to buy Air Botswana could be said to be insolvent. 

'I am sceptical about what happened,' he says. 'What did they present to Government that they could bid for Air Botswana?'  

The left-leaning MP says in some countries, the government owns shares in major companies partly in order to rescue workers when such companies face closure.  Meanwhile, Modubule has attributed the rate of unemployment in Lobatse to lack of development projects there. 'In order for Lobatse to develop,' he says, 'we need industries. The town cannot develop without industries.' He says most projects are concentrated in Gaborone though Lobatse is only 70 kilometres from the capital. He blames agencies like the Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA) for failure to lure investors to Lobatse. 

'Government has neglected Lobatse for a long time. Right now there is a consultancy going on in Selibe-Phikwe on how the town's economy could be diversified. The same is not being done for Lobatse. This is disturbing.' Modubule says he intends to raise the issue of abandoned commercial buildings in Lobatse with land authorities. But he acknowledges that there is a glimmer of hope for the frontier town. He says the government has purchased some farms surrounding the town and that once serviced land is available, development projects should be attracted to Lobatse.