{"id":25702,"date":"2023-04-18T17:26:32","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br"},"modified":"2023-04-18T17:31:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:31:15","slug":"botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br","title":{"rendered":"Botash denies owing cash-strapped BR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Botswana Ash (Pty) Ltd (Botash)is denying a statement that was made by a Botswana Railways executive manager at a meeting with union representatives.<\/b><\/p>\n

The meeting in question was between BR management and the Botswana Transport and General Workers Union (BTGWU) and one of the agenda items was late payment to staff. Minutes of the meeting, which have been annexed to a case at the Gaborone Industrial Court, quote BR\u2019s Acting Director of Finance, Amon Sefawe, as saying that \u201cBotash and MCM are not paying them well and also that they too are struggling. He said that the aim is to make arrangements with the two companies to pay them on time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Botash is the portmanteau of Botswana Ash (Pty) Ltd, a parastatal organisation owned by the Botswana government and a South African company called Chlor Alkali Holdings at 50 percent shareholding each. MCM is the abbreviation for Morupule Coal Mine, which is wholly owned by Minerals Development Company Botswana. In a rebuttal statement released last week, Botash denies what Sefawe is claiming in the minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBotash wishes to clarify that the alleged comments by BR management are unfortunate as they are not true both with regards to Botash\u2019s payments to BR and in so far as it is implied that Botash is also facing challenges with its own financial performance,\u201d reads the statement. \u201cAll payments due to BR have been made within the contractual terms. There is further no concern whatsoever over Botash\u2019s financial performance and its ability to meet its obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

BR and BTGWU are currently locked in a legal battle before the Gaborone Industrial Court. The latter\u2019s case is that in failing to pay employees on time, BR is defaulting on its contractual obligations as expressed in its employment contract. The Union also raises the argument that BR should bear the cost of financial penalties that creditors and service providers impose on the employees for their own late payment of stop orders.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, BR\u2019s response to the Union\u2019s case doesn\u2019t raise the argument that Sefawe made at the meeting in question. Such response is packaged in the form of an affidavit that has been deposed to by the Acting Chief Executive Officer, Chelesile Malele. She attributes the organisation\u2019s financial problems to the following: a long turnaround times in South Africa due to the upgrade of a line from Mahikeng to Krugersdorp; public unrest that \u201cusually occurs in South Africa\u201d; vandalism and cable theft; shortage of locomotives both on BR and Transnet Freight Rail lines; long turnaround times on the National Railways of Zimbabwe lines due to shortage of locomotives; shortage of wagons such as those used to transport coal and salt \u2013 \u201cthis is mainly due to maintenance backlog\u201d; Tarlton terminal remains closed for fuel dispatches due to South African Revenue Services compliance issues; \u201cpersistent\u201d loadshedding at Slurry and Mahikeng (both in South Africa) resulting in loss of cement tonnage; and the suspension of movement of some BR wagons in South Africa by the South Africa Railway Safety Regulator due to maintenance issues.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana Ash (Pty) Ltd (Botash)is denying a statement that was made by a Botswana Railways executive manager at a meeting with union representatives. The meeting in question was between BR management and the Botswana Transport and General Workers Union (BTGWU) and one of the agenda items was late payment to staff. Minutes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":25701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-25702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nBotash denies owing cash-strapped BR - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Botswana Ash (Pty) Ltd (Botash)is denying a statement that was made by a Botswana Railways executive manager at a mee ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Botash denies owing cash-strapped BR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Botswana Ash (Pty) Ltd (Botash)is denying a statement that was made by a Botswana Railways executive manager at a mee ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-18T17:26:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-18T17:31:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681816925.68.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Botash denies owing cash-strapped BR\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-18T17:26:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-18T17:31:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br\"},\"wordCount\":529,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1681816925.68.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/botash-denies-owing-cash-strapped-br\",\"name\":\"Botash denies owing cash-strapped BR - 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