More than 600 workers expected to be sent home at Oshana Mall

THE Benz Building Supplies group of companies, which owns one of the biggest shopping malls in the Oshana region, the Oshana mall in Ongwediva, is planning to send home more than 600 workers in response to the complete shutdown of a number of retail stores in the popular shopping centre, in efforts to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Oshana shopping mall has about 128 retail shops, with over 1053 workers currently employed there.

The managing director of the Benz Building Supplies Group, Ben Zaaruka, at a press briefing earlier today, stated that no retrenchment of workers will take place at the moment. However, the company has taken drastic measures to send a number of workers home for the duration of the 21 days lockdown as per the government directive.

As leaders, we should have the lives of our people at heart and we should forego all activities of self interest in the best interest of our people. Therefore, the health of our people is all that matters, today, tomorrow and after tomorrow. Any other attitude is only self-interest. At the moment, we are not considering any retrenchments. We are just sending our workers home, and we will continue paying their salaries until such a time that the lockdown period has been lifted,” said Zaaruka.

Zaaruka noted that the group of companies has decided on a complete shutdown of Benz Building Supplies in Ongwediva as of 28 March.

Four franchise restaurants at the Oshana mall, namely Barcelos, Milky Lane, Fish Aways and Debonairs Pizza, will also be locked down until further notice.

The Edcon group, which owns a chain of retail stores, including Edgars, at the Oshana mall has already closed the doors to its stores until further notice.

Zaaruka, who is also an executive member of the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (NCCI) northern branch, stressed that for the past two months the NCCI’s northern branch has made attempts to initiate a dialogue with government officials as part of the private and public sector’s response to the issue of the Covid-19 outbreak, in order to reach inclusive decisions as to what to do as a nation. However, the government has not responded to their pleas.

“Unfortunately, our government has been playing the "see-no-evil and hear-no-evil” politics with us. I even personally called the then minister of trade and industry, Tjikero Tweya, to engage him, but he was reluctant to listen to me. As long as the government keeps on ignoring us, there is nothing that we can do. I employ a huge number of workers, but at the moment I’m forced to close down some shops in order to protect the lives of my workers and still continue to pay off their salaries. Until when am I going to afford my workers when my businesses are not making any money? The effect of Covid-19 is so catastrophic that we have to prepare for the worst. Such things could have been avoided, if only the government listened to us business people. This is bad and we are suffering,” he said.

Zaaruka urged the government to offer businesses, especially those that employ a large number of people, stimulus packages as a means to keep businesses afloat amid the Covid-19 pandemic.