Ex-NWR workers back in court

ABOUT 80 former Namibia Wildlife Resorts Company (NWR) workers have taken the State-owned resort operator to the Labour Court over its controversial ‘Public-Private Partnerships’ arrangement.

The workers, many of whom had served more than 20 years, charge that the NWR changed their service conditions without consultations by allegedly forcing them into employment of the BEE companies now running these resorts.They charge that they now find themselves ‘privatised’ against their will.But so far they have found it hard to get a court date, as their case has been postponed twice by Magistrate Uaatja Uanivi, who they accuse of being biased against them. The most recent appearance in the Windhoek Labour Court saw their case postponed to April next year, without it actually being called in court, their spokesman Nico Jacobs said.The workers wanted their case to be heard before the elections, they told The Namibian.They have also been told not to speak to the media by their new employers.Although the workers are being paid the same salaries, certain benefits have been revoked – such as free housing and transport for their school-going children at the resorts of Daan Viljoen, Von Bach, Reho Spa and the campsites along the coast.The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, at the signing of the so-called PPP deals last year, stressed that no NWR workers would lose their jobs or have their service conditions changed. But the workers said in a petition handed to Deputy Minister Leon Jooste that they were effectively presented with a fait accompli before any of them could have a say in who they wanted to work for.’We, the workers of the abovementioned holiday resorts […] are dismayed, shocked to the bone and in a complete state of confusion with the communiqué titled: Public Private Partnerships (PPP) communiqué by NWR management, [dated] 29 July 2008,’ their petition states.The group – who make up all the NWR workers from these resorts – said they were ‘dumped’ into the private companies, and said the national asset base was being threatened and systematically eroded by the NWR’s actions.’We are not slaves who may be bodily transferred at will,’ they said in their petition handed to Jooste on August 15 last year.At the same time, they demanded that they be given their pension payouts and severance packages as they wanted to join the ‘new managing partners’ with a clean sheet.Jooste however told them that Cabinet had already approved these deals, and there was nothing he or the Ministry could do about it anymore, Jacobs told The Namibian this week. About 13 workers interviewed at Daan Viljoen expressed anger at how the Namibia Public Workers’ Union (Napwu) has handled their case, accusing the union of betraying them because of its own commercial interests in troubled health insurer Prosperity Health.Prosperity Health’s subsidiary San Karros, in which Swapo-owned Kalahari Holdings and Zebra Holdings hold shares, were given the concession to operate the Daan Viljoen resort for the next 30 years, renewable for another 30 years.Workers are currently employed as garden labourers, including former front office staff, cooks, housekeepers and maintenance staff. The resort has now been closed for nearly a year for renovations, which so far amounted little more than garden landscaping.The workers, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals from San Karros, angrily pointed out the run-down state of the resort, with the restaurant closed, the swimming pools emptied and the picnic areas now largely overgrown with weeds.In an earlier interview, Prosperity Health CEO Kobus Struwig claimed to have spent in excess of N$4,5 million at Daan Viljoen, a figure the workers scoffed at. All that has happened was that the inflow into the picturesque dam was dredged with a tractor, one or two bungalows were thatched and berms (heaps of soil) dumped between the houses to be planted with lawn, according to them.’The first rains that come, this is all going to wash into the dam,’ one female worker said. ‘What kind of renovation is that?’The women especially complained of the financial burden they now have to shoulder as sole breadwinners. They all were just given one day to move out the staff quarters and rent expensive accommodation in Windhoek.’Every month, we have to go the cash loan to get money just to pay the rent now. No money for food, clothes – nothing,’ an angry woman in her forties said. They are also now forced to spend up to N$300 a month for taxis to get their children to school, where previously the NWR had provided a bus to take them to school every day.NWR spokesperson Najeeb Khan could not be immediately reached for comment.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587