Africa-Press – Botswana. Premium Nickel Resources (PNR), a Canadian firm that acquired both Selebi and Selebi North mine shafts, will eventually open for operations, President Advocate Duma Boko has told residents of Selebi Phikwe.
Addressing the residents at Sam Sono Stadium, Tuesday, President Boko, although noncommittal to timeframes, said government was encouraging and gently pushing PNR to expedite opening of the two shafts in order to help ease off the dire need for jobs.
“Will the mine ever open? Selebi, Selebi North, yes, PNR who acquired them, will open,” said President Advocate Boko.
“We want people to work, but we’re not focused only on the mine… We should resuscitate the economy of Selebi-Phikwe by all means necessary and possible,” Advocate Boko added.
The President said there was a logistics company looking to invest P200 million in the copper/nickel mining town, a move that would create jobs in a town that used to look like a graveyard following the closure of BCL mine back in 2016.
Consequently, the Ministry of Minerals and Energy, through department of mines, has approached the liquidator with a view of acquiring the houses in question through the credit facility the liquidator acquired at the beginning of the liquidation process.
Although the amount was not stated, the liquidator was to reimburse government upon successful sale of the BCL mine.
The houses would then become property of government after which the residents would be engaged on a way forward, the President said.
Not only was the liquidator evicting tenants from the BCL houses, he ensured that the state of the art smelter was stripped and sold as scrap metal, the President said.
The president alluded that the BCL mine was sold without thorough knowledge of the amount of minerals available underground and hence the new owners could not believe their luck post exploration when they found huge deposits of copper and nickel at their acquired shafts.
Government tried to hatch ways to remedy this, but the liquidator’s actions were legal and above board, the President found.
Resultantly, the President, with a team of experts and advocates, put heads together to ‘sweat blood’ until the only available avenue was the Presidential Commission of Inquiry which could lead to the unearthing of the truth behind the liquidation of BCL mine.
The said Presidential Commission of Inquiry is expected to kick-off mid-June. At the end, there will be actions to be taken following the recommendations of the commission of the inquiry, Advocate Boko said.
The President said that some people may end up facing the law if implicated while those who enriched themselves through the process may find the products of such enrichment confiscated.
The liquidation of the BCL, President Adv. Boko said, was a result of reckless and grave decision by then government to go against his free counsel in parliament whilst still a Member of Parliament for Bonnington North in 2016.
Advocate Boko said that upon realising that the then Botswana Democratic Party-led government intransigently ignored his counsel against liquidation of the BCL mine, he then offered that the government adopted judicial management which they, too, turned a deaf ear to.
With the judicial management, President Adv. Boko said government could have had some power and control as opposed to liquidation where all the power was vested on the liquidator, leaving the government, the major creditor, powerless.
By opting for liquidation, President Boko said that the then government’s action was akin to locking themselves outside a house and then throwing keys inside the house where sits the liquidator. Upon being faced by a hailstorm the same government would then beg for the liquidator to let them in, but would turn them down.
To rid uninformed decisions, Advocate Boko said that leaders needed to engage in rigorous pondering over the decisions they were to make and their possible ramifications on the lives of the people Before then, the President said the liquidator had gone to government to be allowed over six years for a successful liquidation process where he would prepare the mine for a profitable sale.
It is reported that the then government declined the request and forced the liquidator out under the guise that he was failing the process. The closure of BCL, a mine that provided for about 5 000 direct employees and tens of thousands indirect beneficiaries, saw some people lose their lives over the burden of shouldering responsibilities of providing and caring for their families whilst unemployed, Adv. Boko said.
In closing the mine abruptly, the President said, the rights of the workers inter alia were trampled upon.
Source: DAILYNEWS
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