AGREEMENT ON MIGRANT WORKERS’ WAGES SIGNED

The Mozambican government has selected the Commercial and Investment Bank (BCI), the second largest commercial bank in the country, as the institution through which deferred wages will be paid to Mozambican migrant workers when they return from the South African mines.Mozambican Labour Minister Helena Taipo and the chairperson of the BCI Executive Commission, Ibrahimo Ibrahimo, signed an agreement in Maputo on Monday, under which, by the end of this year, all returning miners should receive their wages in individual BCI accounts.The agreement on mine labour between Mozambique and South Africa stipulates that only part of the miners’ wages is paid in South Africa. After signing contracts with the mining companies, the miners receive their wages for the first six months in full. But from then on, they only receive 40 per cent of their wages - they pick up the other 60 per cent when they return to Mozambique on holiday, or at the end of their contracts. Up until now the miners received their deferred wages in cash from the mine recruitment agency, Teba. This system was highly dangerous, and there are many tragic stories of returning miners being robbed of their hard earned wages.Speaking at the signing ceremony, Taipo said the system of cash payments is completely out-of-date, and there was no good reason why the miners should not benefit from the technological advances in banking.“The miners themselves, on countless occasions, including during my visit last year to the South African mines and farms, have asked the government for their money to be deposited in individual accounts, instead of receiving it in cash”, she said. The government thought this was a legitimate request, and so launched a tender to choose the bank where the miners’ money would be deposited. The BCI won this tender, Taipo said, because it presented the best market proposals, and because it responded satisfactorily to the government’s requirement that banking services must be available for miners in their areas of origin (mostly in Gaza, Inhambane and Maputo provinces), and at the Mozambique/South Africa border. Ibrahimo said that, as soon as the BCI was informed that it had won the tender, it began to make large scale investments in the miners’ home areas. “We don’t just want to be a bank for the miners, but also a bridge linking the Mozambican miners in South Africa to their families”, he said.Under the new payment system, the 60 per cent of the miners’ wages previously sent to Teba, will now be deposited directly into their BCI accounts, and the miners will be able to use this money at any time they choose. Currently there are about 40,500 Mozambicans working on the South African mines