The resolution was taken during a general meeting held on Monday. The union’s national executive committee has given the branch committee the go ahead to make all the necessary arrangements for the demonstrations. The union president, Jack Tlhagale told workers never to despair because their previous demonstrations were never acted upon. He added that it is only through demonstrations that the mine management will listen to the branch committee concerns over workers. He told workers that labour issues are never addressed in boardrooms during meetings between management and union representatives but by workers who are not afraid to take bold decisions that will force management to listen to the union. “If you believe that boardroom meetings will resolve your problems then you are wasting time. It is upon workers to address the situation at BCL,” he said. He added that this time around the union will engage other unions in the demonstrations.
Tlhagale added that workers cannot be blamed for the financial mess that the BCL mine is plunged in or make them take responsibility while there are managers who are paid to do their jobs. “Just stick to your contracts with the employer and each manager must be made to answer for their deeds,” he added. He further said it is not the first time that BCL had experienced challenging commodity prices but it is how the management in place address the situation. “The former general manager Montwedi Mphathi may have had his own issues but he performed far much better and if government decides to bring him back to save this mine we will embrace the decision,” he said to applause from workers. Workers had earlier expressed that demonstrations are held but they never yield any result because follow ups are never made. They cited the previous demonstrations in which they called for the sacking of managing director, Daniel Mahupela and divisional manager (organisational capabilities), Motsile Sibanda. They strongly said they want the current leadership gone because it has proven that they are not competent enough to save the mine. “We want investigations to be conducted to ascertain the competency of the current crop of leadership,” said the workers. The meeting was convened to brief workers on the reports of the alleged retrenchments.
