Mineworkers want protection from future BCL-style collapses :: Mmegi Online

Eleven former BCL Mineworkers committed suicide in the years since its closure in 2016 and about 19 suffered civil imprisonment for debts. More than 4,000 workers lost their jobs in the country’s biggest mass unemployment event and the Botswana Mineworkers Union is vowing ‘never again’. Staff Writer, MBONGENI MGUNI reports

SELEBI-PHIKWE: As much as reports of the impending reopening of BCL Mine have lifted the mood in the town and ushered in much-needed hope for the thousands of former workers, the positive news has also triggered harsh memories of October 8, 2016, when their world crashed.

On that day, several Cabinet ministers addressed mineworkers at a clearing outside the main entrance and delivered the news that the 60-year-old mine would close with immediate effect. In fact, the ministers said, the mine had been declared closed 24 hours earlier at a Cabinet committee meeting held within a boardroom at BCL Mine.

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