TSUMEB – Hans Nolte, the General Manager of Dundee Precious Metals Tsumeb (DPMT) says the company is committed to empower local Namibians through its empowerment policy. Nolte says such empowerment can only be committed towards deserving local companies that can deliver on the jobs allocated to them and not on a silver platter.
He stressed that DPMT has opened up job opportunities through a transparent tendering process to allow greater participation from all service providers.
Nolte however admitted that some companies landed jobs at the smelter without going through the tender process in the past due to the urgency of the jobs that needed to be performed during the transition stages.
“Yes, I acknowledge that, but this was because some companies were contracted to perform immediate jobs that could not wait. We have a performance timetable that we need to honor and some tasks had to be implemented as prioritized. The company has compliance standards and expectations from government are that we need to strictly follow that timeline in order to improve on certain things which previously caused health related hazards to our workers and communities of Tsumeb in general,” said Nolte. He stressed that remarkable progress has been recorded with the construction of the acid plant and that more jobs will be created during the construction phase.
The project requires highly specialized skills hence DPMT’s decision to allocate the tender to foreign companies with a global track record of performing such hi-tech plant operations.
According to him, local contractors were taken up by the foreign companies to perform sub-contracting jobs as part of the company policy to create employment for local residents.
Nolte further encouraged local unemployed residents to register themselves with the Tsumeb Municipality as part of an understanding between the two institutions to use the municipality’s database when recruiting local unemployed residents for jobs offered by Dundee Precious Metals.
The smelting company is expected to invest more than N$2 billion in constructing the acid plant.
More than 800 contractors are expected to oversee the construction phase which started early last month.
Meanwhile some local contractors have complained about the highly technical requirements that are built into some tenders and urged the company to distinguish between local empowerment of SME contractors and highly specialized jobs. They argued that requirements for some jobs that are targeting SMEs should be relaxed if the company is serious about sharing the “cake” with local service providers.
They however praised DPMT for introducing changes to the tender committee which previously only comprised of previously advantaged Namibians.
It is reported that emissions of dangerous toxic chemicals released by the smelter during the production process have been reduced drastically at the town.
Oshikoto Regional Governor Penda ya Ndakolo expressed appreciation about the company’s adherence and commitment towards the implementation of government’s expectation in respect of eliminating health related hazards at the smelter operations. “The company should not take short cuts because the safety and health of our workers and residents cannot be compromised at all. I hope they are also implementing issues that we raised during our first meeting with their management last year,” said ya Ndakolo.
By Engel Nawatiseb