Dinapama’s retrenchment caused by Angolan situation

THE managing director and co-owner of textiles company Dinapama, David Namalenga, said the company’s decision to retrench 46 employees was a result of a cash crunch in neighbouring Angola.

Dinapama Manufacturing and Supplies is owned by Namalenga as well as the acting president of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) Connie Pandeni, and Elifas Dingara, likewise a former trade unionist.

The retrenched employees have 14 December as their last day of work, and according to Namalenga, the company will still keep about 200 employees.

He was responding to an accusation by the Namibia Wholesale and Retail Workers Union (NWRWU) that Dinapama employees who took part in a demonstration earlier this month were identified as candidates to be affected by the retrenchment.

He told The Namibian on Monday that the company’s biggest orders were coming from Angola, and since July this year, work has been limited as few orders were coming from that country.

Angola’s economy, which heavily depends on oil revenue, has recently been hit by a crisis due to a plunge in global oil prices.

Namalenga said there is not much work anymore, and the company has not received payments for some work as Angolan clients struggle to pay.

“Most of our orders are from Angola. Even now, there are a number of orders from there which are not yet picked up,” he said.

Namalenga, a former trade unionist, further rubbished the NWRWU’s accusation that the retrenchment has been linked to the 4 November demonstration.

“We had a meeting with the employees on 17 October to inform them that there is not much work anymore, and that we were considering a retrenchment. At that time, we did not even know anything about a demonstration, or who would take part in it,” he explained.

At a press conference on Monday, NWRWU secretary general Victor Amunyela further accused Namalenga of using methods to intimidate employees to leave the union, saying this is the reason the union’s majority was minimised.

Namalenga, however, told The Namibian that the union never attained the required 50 plus majority, and this kept the union from being sent back from the Labour Commissioner’s office.