Creditors urged to challenge BCL liquidation
Onalenna Kelebeile | Tuesday October 18, 2016 18:30
He said this in a question and answer session during a recent meeting addressed by the Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Sadique Kebonang last week.
To the applause of the concerned business community and creditors, Keorapetse insisted that challenging the government’s decision is necessary because the liquidation is going to leave the town in serious problems.
“Government should rescind its decision to liquidate BCL but enter into a payment plan contract with Norilsk over the P3 billion owed by BCL. The mine must then be opened,” he said.
He said he is of the view that with business process reengineering and restructuring and other interventions, BCL can survive.
Keorapetse dismissed statements that government has been bailing out BCL for the last 37 years after it only became profitable for only three years. “It is a lie. The last time BCL was bailed out by government was in 2003 and guaranteed a loan in 2016. It is also not true that BCL ore from the shafts is low grade,” he added.
He said the liquidation of BCL is going to have far reaching implications not only to the employees and the local economy, but also to many companies that rely on the mine for business such as Morupule Colliery whose main consumer of coal is BCL, Botswana Power Corporation and others.
In response, MP Nonofo Molefhi advised that countering and challenging government’s decision in court would make the whole issue to become messy and Selebi-Phikwe will be lost. “As much as we share the frustrations, let us support the liquidator. Also avail yourself as the creditor community to assist during the process of liquidation so that no time is lost in saving Selebi-Phikwe,” he said.
The business community hoped that leaders of this nation will try to save BCL somehow. They also wanted to know what will happen to the invoices they had already submitted to the mine for payments before it was closed down last week Friday.
Those from private schools wanted to know what will be done to school fees subsidy in January. For his part, Kebonang said the liquidator will go through all processes and interrogate elements of mismanagement to establish if mismanagement is the cause. He said all invoices and claims for the work that contractors did for BCL will be handled by the liquidator.
Kebonang had earlier explained that it was no longer economically viable to keep BCL operating while it is not profitable hence the decision to liquidate was necessary to safeguard the interests of the employees and government’s interests despite the debts that has suffocated the mine.
He explained that over P7 billion is needed to keep the mine running. He added that the liquidator has been given up to February 7, 2017 to have concluded his evaluation and assessment and submit a report that would inform the final decision of whether the mine should be closed completely or scaled down.
“We have asked the liquidator to work fast to ensure that creditors are paid and to ensure that he does the recommendations in a manner that will not kill the local businesses,” he added.