Matsiloje cement plant

In 2018, Josh said the company had constantly reduced prices to keep up with the competition until it reached a point where the executive felt that it was not sustainable to continue running the business.

“We had hoped that the business environment would change for the better, but things did go not as we had anticipated,” he said then.

He added there was a lack of support for their business from both the government through initiatives such as the Economic Diversification Drive and big players in the construction industry. Meanwhile, the Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) has called on South African firm PPC Ltd, the country’s largest cement maker, to make a written undertaking that no jobs will be lost when the company sells its 100% shareholding in PPC Aggregate Quarries Botswana Proprietary Ltd to Danoher Botswana.

The union also said that all outstanding labour matters between PPC and its workers should be resolved prior to the conclusion of the sale transaction.

PPC Aggregates has outstanding industrial labour matters before the District Labour Office and a Court of Appeal case in respect of annual wage increments for 2019-2020. In addition, the company has a pending case before the High Court over payment of retrenchment packages owed and due to employees following the acquisition of Quarries of Botswana a few years ago.“We call on the Competition Authority to conduct a thorough vetting of merger and acquisition applications by mining and quarrying companies and to introduce public hearings of these processes to ensure that all interested parties, including the union, are allowed to make submissions in respect of transactions,” reads the statement from the BMWU.