WALVIS BAY – The owners of the Navachab gold mine are anxious about the current industrial action at the mine at a time when negotiations are taking place to sell the mine.
Employees of Lewcor Plant Hire, the main contractors at the gold mine, downed tools yesterday over unpaid bonuses and a 13th cheque that are yet to be paid to the company’s some 240 employees.
According to a statement in possession of New Era the management of the mine that is is situated outside Karibib warned Lewcor that negotiations for the sale of the mine are at a delicate stage and the industrial action could influence the negotiations.
“The potential sale of the Navachab mine is at a delicate stage and picketing of a third party may compromise the process,” reads the statement signed by Johan Coetzee the mine’s managing director.
AngloGold Ashanti wants to sell Navachab as part of the group’s cost-cutting measures and the gold mine is being sold through a closed-door bidding process.
Bidders listed as vying for Navachab are Vedanta Zinc International Group and B2Gold, another Canadian company that owns the Otjikoto gold mine. Vedanta Zinc International Group, which owns the Skorpion zinc mine and refinery in southern Namibia, has expressed keen interest in purchasing Navachab.
The industrial action, according to some in the mining industry, will most likely also influence operations at the mine as the mine relies mainly on the machinery and manpower of Lewcor to carry out its daily operations. It is not clear how long the workers will strike.
Speaking to New Era, Pineas Pombili the branch chairperson of the Mine Workers Union of Namibia (MUN) at Lewcor said the industrial action resulted after the company and the MUN reached a deadlock in their negotiations over last year’s bonuses and 13th cheque that were not paid.
“The matter was later referred to the Office of the Labour Commissioner which referred it back to us for further negotiations, but we could still not agree,” Pombili explained.
By Eveline de Klerk