Chinese company gets land for 200 workers

A CHINESE construction company has been granted permission by the City of Windhoek to lease a 4 000 square metre plot for 12 months at over N$44 000 a month to accommodate 200 workers.

Qingdao Construction (Namibia) CC wants to set up temporary accommodation structures on a portion of Erf R/1949 for workers who will be hired to complete the construction of the defence headquarters near the Suiderhof military base.

The Namibian Defence Force contracted the Chinese company to complete the project that was left midway by Mansudae Overseas Projects, a North Korean construction company, because of United Nations sanctions imposed on that country.

Minutes of last month’s city council meeting state that the Chinese company applied for a lease because it wants to bring the workforce closer to the construction site as the project is behind schedule after being halted due to ‘sensitive’ matters.

The municipality will collect N$533 000 at the end of the lease period.

According to the minutes, the company initially applied to accommodate about 500 workers on the site.

The number was reduced to 200 workers after the municipality objected to the idea of accommodating about 500 people on a 4 000 square metre plot.

Concerns raised by the municipality’s health and environment services’ division include “sanitation, waste management, noise and degradation of natural surroundings”.

Although final approval has not been granted yet by the municipality, the recommendations from last month’s council meeting show that the company was given the go-ahead to start construction.

The council also recommended that the workers should be provided with at least six toilets, of which two can be set aside for females and an additional four urinals for male employees.

The company was also told to rehabilitate the plot to its original state at the end of the lease period.

This deal was, however, halted after objections from opposition councillors, including the RDP’s Brunhilde Cornelius and Nudo’s Joseph Kauandenge, who questioned the merits of the agreement.

The councillors raised concerns over the fact that the company had already started the construction of the temporary structures before their application was approved.

Cornelius said it was not right to accommodate 200 people on a 4 000 square metre land with only six toilets. They requested that the deal be put on hold to allow the councillors to visit the site in January before final approval is granted.

Kauandenge yesterday said the agreement “doesn’t make sense” because the money the company will pay per month was peanuts, and was “way below market value”.

He added that the municipality also needed to consider local businesses first before entertaining the Chinese proposal.

“Most of the people who will be accommodated there are Chinese, and this is where I have a problem. This is simple labour that any Namibian can do, and we are importing 200 Chinese to come and do labourers’ work here? When are we going to empower our people?”, he asked.

“They are bringing their people from China, and on top of that, they also want to be given that plot for free to put their toilets. Why can they not rent at the accommodation facilities which are already in the city so that they can leave money in Windhoek? It doesn’t make any sense,” he charged.

The deal was referred back to the management committee to allow councillors to go for a site visit before final approval is granted.

Kauandenge said he will table a motion to have the deal cancelled in January.