TSUMEB – The Employment Equity Commission (EEC) has launched an investigation into how Murray & Roberts recruited Indian workers to work on the construction of the sulphuric acid plant for Dundee Precious Metals in Tsumeb.
The investigation follows a demonstration by angry residents of Tsumeb, who a month ago took to the streets in protest of not being afforded the chance to apply for work at the construction site. Compounding the investigation is the fact that Murray & Roberts presented the EEC with a doctored copy of a New Era newspaper that purportedly carried an advertisement for job opportunities at the plant, to which no Namibian applied, and hence the employment of foreigners. The copy of the “newspaper” is dated 14 April 2013, which was a Sunday. The New Era daily newspaper is only published on weekdays.
“The Affirmative Action Act requests that Namibians be given preference when it comes to jobs. The questions I posed included: Did they look at the locals first before importing theses Indians, because we have a serious employment crisis in Namibia.
I was told they advertised these posts in the New Era ‘weekly’ newspaper. This was a fabricated story, they made a mistake thinking we would not double check. In their attempt to pull the wool over our eyes they got the date wrong – 14 April 2013 was a Sunday.
I know they did not comply with our laws.
The people from Murray & Roberts must face the law for not only deceiving our people but also for tarnishing the name of New Era,” said the Employment Equity Commissioner Vilbard Usiku. The commissioner said he met with Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) after hearing about the protests in Tsumeb.
“Even if they are behind schedule, being late is not an excuse to drive 220 kilometres an hour knowing that the speed limit is 120 kilometres. Failure to comply with the law must take its course,” said Usiku.
Murray & Roberts also presented the same newspaper document to the Swapo party councillor for Oshikoto Lebius Tobias during a meeting on the subject last week – compounding their being economical with the truth.
When asked for comment, a senior employee of Murray and Roberts, who declined to be identified, said: “I only started working here in April this year, that advert was placed last year. I only saw it [the newspaper] last week during a PowerPoint presentation.” Murray & Roberts’ senior executive at head office in South Africa did not respond to emailed questions.
“These people have undermined the authorities in Tsumeb, Oshikoto and Namibia as a whole, they disregarded this whole country. When we went to the site last week we only found Namibians working – all the Indians were out on lunch.
“If Namibians are so incompetent and unable to do this work, why were they left alone and unsupervised by these so-called Indian experts? I stand by my point and no one can convince me otherwise – there is nothing special about these Indians.
“I urge the minister of home affairs to revoke all their visas, our people are peaceful but now they have been reduced to protesting,” added Tobias.
By John Travolter Matali