Former BCL Mine workers have petitioned the presidency calling for the liquidator’s contract to be scrapped over alleged opacity in the mine’s drawn-out wind-down
BONGANI MALUNGA
Former BCL Mine workers have petitioned the Office of the President, urging the highest office in the land to terminate the contract of the liquidator overseeing the collapsed mine’s affairs. The ex-employees delivered their petition through a peaceful protest, handing it over to the Office of the District Commissioner in Selibe Phikwe last week.
The protesters say they have lost all confidence in the liquidator, citing a lack of transparency in the liquidation process and an unclear timeframe for its completion. They are demanding the publication of a written policy governing the sale of assets, settlement periods, extensions and unresolved transactions, insisting the public has a right to this information for accounting purposes.
The group has warned that if they receive no response within a month, they will resume their demonstrations.
WITHOUT DELAY
Receiving the petition on behalf of the District Commissioner, Selibe Phikwe Town Clerk Lawrence Mokotedi confirmed it would be forwarded to the Presidency without delay. “The District Commissioner has received your petition. As per your request he will forward it to the Office of the President. Your request for the timely delivery of this petition to the Presidency will be honoured,” said Mokotedi.
The protest action revives long-simmering frustrations over the fate of BCL Mine, which has remained in limbo since its sudden closure in 2016. On March 20 last year, President Duma Boko told Phikwe residents he would institute a Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the mine’s closure and the liquidation process that followed.
Boko announced that former South African Supreme Court Judge Malcolm Wallace would lead the inquiry, comparing its scope and ambition to South Africa’s celebrated Zondo Commission, which probed state capture under the previous administration.
PATIENCE WEARING THIN
Momentum on the promised inquiry appeared to pick up in October last year, when the Minister of Minerals and Energy Bogolo Kenewendo confirmed government’s intention to formalise proceedings from November 2025. Months on, with the commission’s work still to visibly materialise, former BCL employees say their patience is wearing thin and they are no longer willing to wait quietly for answers about how the liquidation of their former employer is being handled.