KEETMANSHOOP – A group of angry construction workers gathered at the Keetmanshoop Police Station after they assaulted and threatened to kill their boss Johan du Villiers for failing to pay their wages of the past two months.
According to the group leader Elifas Haufiku, the construction workers who were contracted to lay interlock bricks have been working without pay and were expected to be satisfied by Du Villiers’ excuse that he had to pay his own medical bills before paying wages after he was admitted in hospital for three months. The last straw, however, was when Du Villiers arrived with a mere N$5 000 which he offered to Haufiku to distribute among the rest of the workers who allege that Du Villiers owes them N$28 385.20 in outstanding wages a sum disputed by Du Villiers. “He told me that he would pay us on the 20th of this month. He received N$80 000 from NMC, but he used it for his own hospital bills. When I confronted him about the outstanding money for the workers he said to me, ‘what are you looking for baboon? You can even go to the police they can do f*k@l to me,’” said Haufiku. According to one of the workers it was because of that insulting response that some of the workers started assaulting Du Villiers who aggravated the situation by manhandling one of the workers and tearing the victim’s t-shirt. “Every time we asked him about money he told us to go to the Labour Office and we were worried, because we are from Keetmanshoop and this man is from Okahandja so he can just leave us here without paying us,” said Haufiku. He also showed New Era an SMS from Du Villiers daring the workers to go to the labour office over what they claim he owes them.
Du Villiers however dismissed the allegations saying the workers had been working for him for only three weeks and not for two months as they claim. He also refuted the claim that he used the money from the NMC to pay his hospital bills, adding that he only received N$28 000 from which he offered N$5 000 to Haufiku to pay the other workers. “Let me tell you now, I never told anyone that he is a baboon, I am just not that kind of person. They are lying and I will open a case of attempted murder, because they told me that they will kill me and my son. I gave him the N$5 000 so that he can pat them but he refused to take it. Five of his men literally stole the money from my body. They came to me and threatened me, so I gave the money to them, I will not be killed and stabbed to death over money,” he said defiantly. “I tried to get to everyone, if he does not want to take the N$5 000 then he must go to hell! If he had taken it then he could have given each man at least a N$400 or N$500 for food,” countered Du Villiers.
The quanitity surveyor of NMC Construction responsible for payments relating to the Keetmanshoop Mall construction project, Simon Jordaan, confirmed the N$28 000 paid to Du Villiers, as well as two previous payments of N$28 000. Jordaan, however, noted that Du Villiers who was contracted for the job of paving and laying interlock bricks at the Mall only started working in the third week of October and not for the last two months as claimed by the workers.
By Jemima Beukes