18 Mar 2015

Botswana Congress Party (BCP) secretary general, Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang, says the mining sector and its diamond manufacturing industries in Botswana have experienced high levels of closure and job losses.

Addressing media over the closure of BOSETO Mine and others, Dr Gobotswang said the closure had struck a major blow to the country’s efforts to diversify the economy, improve beneficiation and create sustainable employment opportunities.

He noted that in the last two weeks, BOSETO mines under Discovery Metals Limited closed resulting in job losses of over 800 employees and equally more than 300 workers at Teemane Manufacturing Company lost their jobs in January 2015 when the company closed down.

Dr Gobotswang also said it was against this backdrop that the BCP will be petitioning Parliament as the party asserted that there were long standing structural issues that underpinned closure of the mines and the job losses.

“BCP notes that on February 27, 2015, BOSETO mining company used the services of armed security forces to evacuate unsuspecting workers off the work premises,” he said. 

He said that the evacuation amounted to reckless and inhumane disregard of the rights of workers and that BCP condemns the forced evacuation of unsuspecting workers and the use of security forces to effect this drastic action.

“Following the unlawful evacuation, the workers were informed that Discovery Metals Limited was under bankruptcy or insolvency conditions,” he said, noting that a declaration of insolvency is a process with legal proceedings.

He said that failure to communicate means that the declaration of insolvency disempowered the workers and inflicted maximum damage to their rights and entitlement.

On the other hand, Dr Gobotswang said that BCP has decided to present a petition to Parliament to sponsor a private member bill in Parliament to amend the Employment Act and provide the protection of the worker’s right in cases of retrenchment or insolvency.

The petition will also call public attention to the broad structural failure of government to regulate and provide oversight in the mining sector and in the diamond cutting and polishing enterprises while at the same time highlighting the plight of workers at BOSETO mine in Maun and Teemane Manufacturing Botswana in Serowe.

BCP President Mr Dumelang Saleshando said that BCP believes that the investments in the mining sector have to be aligned to the key national strategy and their view was that they have to maximize on job creation from the mining sector.

Mr Saleshando said that focusing only on the extraction of minerals is not on BCP’s interest because that is a capital intensive operation that does not create the critical mass of jobs that the country needs.

“So as a government, certainly at times, our objectives will be in conflict with the business model preferred by investors,” he said.

He said that is why all over the years, the De Beers line has been that it will not make sense to cut and polish in Botswana but rather allow cutting and polishing to take place in other countries.

He said that Africa’s interest will be better served if we were to add value to the minerals that we have but some of the investors have no interest in doing that and that is why they do not have a problem of leaving the cite holders and operations to collapse. ENDS