Massive clean-up at Korean construction site in Suiderhof

A massive clean-up operation apparently took place at the Korean construction company based at the Suiderhof military base late on Friday afternoon. This follows the article that appeared in Namibian Sun on Friday that exposed animal parts, human faeces, leaking water pipes and general filth adjacent to the construction workers’ barracks. The company working at the Suiderhof Army base is the North Korean construction company Mansudae Overseas Projects who are apparently building a new headquarters for the Namibian Defence Force. According to information received shortly after 17:00 on Friday about 40 men cleaned the area behind workers barracks in what they labelled a “revamping of the barracks”. Two large trucks were pulled in at the back of the barracks as they worked for several hours to clean up the area until after 23:00. Last week Namibian Sun discovered animal intestines strewn on the ground at the public area located next to the construction site, while dog paws, fish heads, a rabbit foetus, kudu horns and what seemed to be a either a dead cat or rabbit in a drum were found just outside the fence. Human faeces, bones and other rubbish also littered the ground and water leaks could be seen at several places from the fence, while rabbits were being kept in cages on the construction site and cats were seen walking inside the fence. After the article appeared on Friday the project manager who identified himself only as Choi visited Namibian Sun and claimed he knew nothing of these animal parts and intestines, the filth or how it got there. Choi says that his employees are not responsible for disposing any animal intestines or parts, or any other refuse over the fence that separates the construction site from the public area next to their barracks. “Frankly speaking I know our people very well,” he said Choi said it is simply not true that they are stealing dogs and butchering it at the construction site. He claims that the area where the animal parts, human faeces and bones were found, is an uninhibited area and that people who pass by may be responsible for disposing animal parts next to the construction site behind the workers barracks. He further admitted that last year there were dogs being held at the construction site, but that it was for security reasons and that residents complained about the barking the dogs were then removed. Choi however admits that they do breed rabbits on the premises and eat them. “Eating rabbits is good for the health, but we do not eat dogs here,” said Choi. According to him regular inspections at the construction site and the surrounding area are done by Windhoek Consulting Engineers. Herman van der Merwe from Windhoek Consulting Engineers told Namibian Sun that they were not aware of any of these animal parts and other refuse that was photographed just outside the construction site. According to him they only inspect the construction work of the project and do not go near the barracks as this is the workers’ private area. Van der Merwe however said that the construction company has been warned previously that they should keep the area and the outside neat and there was an incident where dogs were removed from the site. The SPCA has also said that they had been informed previously about complaints of dogs and that they removed dogs that were hiding outside in the bushes. Van der Merwe stressed that the construction company is not allowed to keep animals on the construction site and was shocked to learn that there are still animals such as rabbits being kept. He however referred further questions to the architect of the project, Marley Tjitjo who could not be reached for comment. The City of Windhoek and the Ministry of Defence has still not responded to questions sent to them last week Thursday. WINDHOEK ELLANIE SMIT