Governor pushes salt mining

The governor of Oshana, Clemens Kashuupulwa, is appealing to the environment ministry to review its findings of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) that led to them denying an environmental clearance certificate for the envisaged Otjivalunda Salt Mining and Soap Production facility north of the Etosha National Park in 2014.

Kashuupulwa said he was not consulted when the application for the clearance certificate was done, although he was the most senior government official in the region.

In July 2014, the environmental commissioner, Teofilus Nghitila, turned down the application by South African investors Gecko Mining to establish the plant north of the park.

Gecko was in partnership with influential politicians and traditional leaders of the Ondonga and Uukwambi traditional authorities who created OUME Company as a joint venture with Gecko Namibia.

Nghitila, in his rejection letter, said the proposed site was a national asset and home to a world-class diversity of species. The scope and extent of the proposed project would stress and force the migration of bird colonies and other wildlife species, he said.

“The ecology of the area bears the potential and prospects of being recognised as an ecosystem of international importance and the harvesting of salt from the site may result in the drying up of the pans.

“In accordance with Section 3 (2) (k) and (l) of the Environmental Management Act No.7 of 2007, it is sensible and reasonably fair to protect the ecosystem of the proposed site from any destructive human intervention,” reads part of the letter.

The salt-mining project was opposed from the outset by people living in the vicinity.

They cited the local tradition of fetching salt as an initiation rite for young men, and the importance of salt as a 'hard currency' used for trading and barter by the native Hai//om San and Aawambo for centuries.

Kashuupulwa claims that instead of consulting him, Nghitila and his team only consulted a concerned group comprised of a few traditional leaders and residents of Otjivalunda, who are against the project on the basis of cultural heritage.

In 2015, Kashuupulwa reported Nghitila to prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila during her visit to the region and to deputy mines minister Kornelia Shilunga, as he was seeking an audience with Shifeta to have the objection overturned.

Last week Namibian Sun contacted Kashuupulwa to enquire how far Gecko had gone with its legal action against the environment ministry.

According to the governor, he was unable to reach Shifeta.

He claims that the region is on the verge of losing a golden opportunity that would create employment, eradicate poverty and establish manufacturing in the region.

“I have to challenge the decision of the environmental commissioner because I was not consulted as governor. Without consulting me, the environmental commissioner only concluded that the project is not viable,” Kashuupulwa said.

He said the South African investors had spent a lot of money on the EIA but could not go ahead without the support of the ministry. He said the rejection compromised the regional development agenda.

The Oshana governor maintains that the Ondonga and Uukwambi traditional authorities procedurally created OUME Company as a joint venture with Gecko Namibia.

He said Gecko Namibia owns 95% shares in Otjivalunda Salt Mining and Soap Production, while the two traditional authorities own 2.5% of the shares each.

Efforts to get comment from Shifeta through the ministry's spokesperson Romeo Muyunda failed.

ILENI NANDJATO