Five senior staff exit Terminal Investment Namibia in six months

The resignation of five senior employees from Terminal Investment Namibia (TIN) between November 2025 and April has fuelled concerns among employees about leadership, management practices and working conditions at the terminal.

Some staff allege the number of departures points to deeper problems within the organisation.

However, former senior employees interviewed about their departures have offered different perspectives, saying their decisions to leave were not necessarily linked to workplace dissatisfaction.

Former TIN human resources manager Theo Amakali, who was among the employees transferred from Namport when TIN took over operations, left the company after about a year. He told Namibian Sun his decision to leave was driven by a long-overdue retirement plan.

“From my side, I wanted to retire long before the company started. We came from Namport. In my case, I just sort of did the company a favour by coming over along with the new employees from Namport to help out and to set up systems,” he told Namibian Sun.

 “My time for retirement was really long overdue, long before TIN came along,” Amakali added.

Amakali nevertheless acknowledged that TIN’s first years have involved significant changes, particularly as the company adjusted to taking over operations.

“TIN is really a good company. It’s just the two cultures, the Namibian culture of doing things and the European culture. They just have to find a way,” he said.

“I know it’s a new company, and that transition period needs to happen. But even if it’s a transition period, new things will come out. We still need, obviously, to be high-end. That is natural,” he said.

Amakali said he did not believe the challenges amounted to fundamentally bad working conditions.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong. It’s just really an issue of taking each one’s hand and working together as two parties, together as one,” he said.

Greener pastures

Another senior departure was that of ICT manager Jan Coetzee, who joined TIN in early 2025 and resigned in April.

While a source alleged that Coetzee’s departure was influenced by the working environment and that efforts were made to retain him, Coetzee gave a very different account.

He said he left after securing a senior opportunity in Windhoek that made greater personal and professional sense for him and his family.

“I did not leave the company as a disgruntled person or for any other reason than having been given a better opportunity that was closer, for personal reasons, to family and children’s schooling and university education and other considerations, as we are still raising a family,” he told Namibian Sun.

He stressed that he decided to pursue the Windhoek opportunity because it made "a lot more sense for me and my family".

Coetzee added that his time at TIN was dynamic and that he left without any ill feelings towards the company.

“From a working condition perspective, it was the first year of taking over. It was quite a changing environment. We did a lot of projects, but I found it stimulating. I found it very interesting work,” he said.

"It’s logistics, so it’s a 24/7 type of operation. It’s quite a demanding environment. But that is the nature of logistics. I did leave, as I mentioned earlier, not as a disgruntled person. I didn’t feel that I was ill-treated or anything like that. It was a personal reason. I did not leave because I felt that the company was treating me badly,” Coetzee said.

New expectations

A wider pattern of departures continues to raise questions, however.

The turnover began in November 2025 with the departure of senior planner Adolph Egumbo, followed by Amakali in December and operations manager Widux Mutwa in January.

Coetzee left in April, while founding CEO Alexandre Reali was transferred to another terminal in the network in Panama in June.

Technical manager Petrus Auala is also expected to leave in August after resigning to join another mining company.

Speaking to Namibian Sun, Auala said the company "has a lot of potential”, but underlined its international set-up. “So I guess it's mainly the top management, which is mostly made up of foreigners.

“I think the expectations don't always align with the industrial landscape in Namibia. I do not know whether they look down on us because we're Namibians or whatnot. But otherwise, I don't really have much to say against the company."

He said his departure was also motivated by opportunity.

“I'm leaving because I got a good opportunity somewhere else, so I really do not have much to say against the company. But I am pretty sure that there are two or three managers that probably had a terrible experience at the company,” he admitted.

When reached for comment, TIN’s institutional relations manager Neville Andre said the company would respond to the allegations at a later stage, together with details of other future developments TIN is planning.