BCL woes leave students in the lurch

It is unclear whether the mine will continue to paying their school fees

SESUPO RANTSIMAKO

FRANCISTOWN: The recent placement of BCL under provisional liquidation has left students sponsored by the mine in the lurch, Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) Secretary General Mbiganyi Ramokate has revealed.
Ramokate says it has been an established practice of the mine to enroll children of some miners in private schools with parents being reached half to pay tuition fees. However, with the provisional liquidation which lead to job losses, Ramokate says scores of students no longer know understand their status.
“When the mine was placed under liquidation there was never consultation nor arrangement of all the affected stakeholders… If there was consultation before the closure of the mine, we could have questioned all this. So as we speak parents of affected students do know who to engage and most of them will be forced to withdraw their children from these private schools because they will no longer afford to pay school fees,” lamented Ramokate.
The BMWU highlighted that though they tried to engage the liquidator about the issue last week, their efforts went futile. “We wanted to seek clarity on this issue but unfortunately we were told that the Liquidator has a tight schedule but his assistant promised to set up a meeting this week. Hopefully we will manage to meet the Liquidator and seek clarity on this issue,” he said.