On Friday, the magistrate court heard that Kebawetse Sephunya, a former plant attendant at BCL, who is in maintenance arrears of over P8,000 has disappeared into thin air after the mine was put under provisional liquidation in October. Sephunya has not been paying child maintenance starting from September 29, 2013 to February 2016.
He was ordered by Principal Magistrate Dumisani Basupi to pay P450 per month as maintenance fees for his child. A warrant of arrest has since been issued after he failed to appear in court as scheduled. The prosecution told the court that its efforts to apprehend him had become very complicated and difficult to achieve since the closure of BCL. "My worship the accused person used to work at BCL Mine in Selebi-Phikwe. After the mine was closed it has become difficult and almost impossible task to locate the accused person. If the mine was still operational it was going to be easy for us to effect his warrant of arrest. He has since relocated from Selebi-Phikwe and his whereabouts are unknown. We apply for another mention date to be set and his warrant of arrest to be further extended," Sergeant Mbatshi Mafa said. Meanwhile the chairperson of Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU), Joseph Molambane has told a Manual Workers Unemployment Symposium that six former miners of BCL and its subsidiary Tati Nickel Mining Company (TNMC) have committed suicide because they had not received proper counselling after the mines were closed.
