Mupane, owned by Hawks Mining, a citizen company, has not been operating since March this year owing to serious cash flow problems. Since then, the company’s employees have been lying idle at home without pay. Mupane reportedly owe creditors money exceeding P50 million including the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC). Some of the creditors are pushing for the liquidation of the mine. The government has also declined calls by the Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) that it should consider bailing out the mine by purchasing shares through the Mineral Development Company (MDC).
The latest development at Mupane was confirmed by the BMWU secretary-general (SG), Mbiganyi Gaekgotswe, in an interview with Mmegi yesterday. Gaekgotswe said the contracts of 205 employees directly employed by Mupane have been terminated. Hundreds of employees of firms subcontracted to Mupane also lost their jobs when the company unceremoniously ceased operations in March. “The contracts of the employees were terminated on the 31st of July 2024 after consultation with the employer. All the 205 employees directly employed by the mine were retrenched. No one was spared,” he said in an interview. Gaekgotswe added that the directors of the mine have not shared details about the future of the mine, amid reports that there are interested investors. Sources say that efforts to reopen the mine will take some time, even when an ideal investor is found because of the amount of preparatory works that must be done (to facilitate the reopening). Additionally, attempts to reopen the mine have failed on several occasions in the past because the management could not reach a tangible agreement with potential investors. “The agreement with the employer was that the terminal benefits of the employees will be paid during the month of August and until September. At the moment, none of the employees have received their terminal benefits,” he said. Gaekgotswe emphasised that the employees will be paid in line with a long existing retrenchment agreement between the union and management. “We are hopeful that the employer will honour all the tenets of the retrenchment agreement including payment of the workers,” he said.
In recent weeks, the union has been pushing the mine management to consider freeing the employees. The union argued that if employees are not freed through retrenchments, it means that they cannot explore opportunities elsewhere to sustain their livelihoods. Mupane officials were not available to comment in relation to issues surrounding the retrenchments of employees. Cedric Sam, one the shareholders at the mine, did not respond to questions from Mmegi. The company’s general manager, Koketso Jackson, has previously said that he does not field questions from the media and referred all inquiries to Sam. Meanwhile, Gaekgotswe said the government should do all it can to ensure that the Tati Nickel Mining Company (TNMC) reopens at the specified time. He noted that the growing level job losses in the mining sector, mostly in Francistown and the overall unemployment in the country, is a serious concern. “We welcome news that TNMC has found an investor. We hope that the news that TNMC has found an investor is not electioneering on the part of the ruling party and the President. We want the President to give us assurances that the mine will reopen in two years as promised. We have previously been told that Premium Nickel Resources (PNR) will reopen BCL mine in Selebi-Phikwe before the end 2024 but that has not materialised. We have since been given a new time line for the reopening of BCL mine,” Gaekgotswe told Mmegi.
President Mokgweetsi Masisi recently announced that TNMC has found a buyer and will reopen in two years. He made the announcement at the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) manifesto launch in Tlokweng, but did not give specific details apart from the purchase price. Indications are that Austrian mogul, Cevdet Caner, has purchased TNMC assets through his company NIU Invest. Masisi said that the firm that has purchased TNMC has paid $20m. The base metal mine closed in 2016 as part of liquidation of the wider BCL Ltd group. The BCL assets in Selebi-Phikwe were purchase by PNR over three years ago.
