Chinese labour on cement project to be phased out

Whale Rock Cement, currently building the second cement factory outside Otjiwarongo, says it will retain 150 out of 400 Chinese workers when the construction phase ends in early 2018.

A spokesperson for Whale Rock Cement, Manfred /Uxamb, said this number of Chinese workers would be reduced further to 75 over a period of five years.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration had reached an agreement with the company to bring in 400 Chinese to work on the cement plant for 20 months, starting in February.

The large number of Chinese workers on this single project raised eyebrows at the time of its announcement in July, but

/Uxamb then justified it by saying that the constructing company, Chinese cement building giant SINOMA, was to design and build the factory with its own experts. Namibian labour would be recruited “to assist wherever needed as they [SINOMA] are doing now although the risk is entirely on them”.

“Building of cement plants needs special skills and scientific approach due to the heavy equipment and infrastructure to be set out. That means that you need an experienced builder or contractor that must build the foundation that can carry heavy loads, buildings, cement storage, silos, and so on,” /Uxamb explained in July.

He said a lot of the machinery imported from China to be used on the project was “of the latest design (new generation of equipment as they would call it)”, a lot of which was to be built on site.

For this, he said, the Chinese nationals were “specifically trained” at SINOMA's Research and Design Institute in China.

Additionally, he said, the reason for the recruitment of Chinese labour was because the project was to be completed in a short space of time.

Last week /Uxamb said in the long run approximately 500 Namibians would be employed while the Chinese workers would be “phased out” after the construction was finalised.

Last week /Uxamb said: “SINOMA is a specialist in cement construction and no Namibian has the skills to build a modern cement facility and for that reason Whale Rock Cement has appointed SINOMA, the experts in building such infrastructure.”





He said the company wished to expedite the construction period so that the plant could start production to “give the Namibians their rightful employment”.

“We have rescheduled to work around the clock. We must have a committed workforce to work around the clock in order for our new schedule to be productive soon.”

The Chinese workers are accommodated in temporary housing on the construction site at Farm Cleveland.

This was criticised by some Otjiwarongo residents who felt that the workers should have been accommodated in town for the potential economic spin-offs.

/Uxamb said the reason why the workers were accommodated on the farm was for better control and safety reasons, as well as the language barrier. Another reason is because of the 24-hour shifts and the ease of management, /Uxamb said.

/Uxamb, former CEO at the Otjiwarongo municipality, said there was an economic spin-off from goods and services being bought in town.



THE MINE

The project has been a long time coming, since 2007 when it first got 15-year mineral rights for industrial minerals (ML 146) until 2022 for the development of a limestone and marble quarry and factory on a 1004-hectare portion of Farm Cleveland.

The marble deposit is to be mined from an open pit.

At an August 2006 planning meeting, it was discussed that the lack of skills would be dealt with by employing relevant people during the construction phase to be trained in Brazil to come back and run the operations of the factory.

A first environmental clearance certificate was issued in 2007, but due to a lack of investment at the time, the implementation was put on hold until 2015 when an investment agreement with Chinese Asia and Africa Business Management (XIAN) was reached.

Then a second environmental clearance certificate was issued and the Otjiwarongo municipality and Otjozondjupa regional council welcomed the project.

Farm Cleveland was bought by the government for resettlement purposes but was later handed over to the Otjiwarongo municipality.

It is not clear what the arrangement between the Otjiwarongo municipality and Whale Rock Cement is regarding the use of the farm portion, since neither the municipality nor Whale Rock responded to questions in this regard.

However, the municipality served eviction notices in February on 32 families who had illegally settled on the farm since 2006 and 2007.

According to the environmental management plan, a US$350 million (about N$4 billion) investment will be made in the project and the economic benefits would include “more than US$30 billion” being pumped into the Namibian economy over 40 years.

CATHERINE SASMAN