Poverty reigns supreme at BCL hostels

While the Mine’s ex-employees are in a dilemma of facing the reality of having to pay rent amidst the already harsh conditions they are faced with, everyday calls from commercial banks demanding repayment of loans that have not been serviced for a year now, presents yet another agony.

Ipelegeng programme is the only source of income for those households. Some female spouses, who are mostly in their youth, are the ones now providing for their children and retrenched partners. But there is too little for them to survive in a month. Instead of eating their daily rations at the work place, those engaged in Ipelegeng programme take the bread and soft drinks to feed the families. But as Ipelegeng operates on rotational basis, the month the ex-miners’ partners are off, there is literally nothing to feed the family.