Open letter to President Hage Geingob

Hopefully this letter finds you in good spirits, your Excellency. In my effort to promote harmonious labour relations, ensure job security and business sustainability in the country, I am writing you an open letter giving a sequence of events that led to the closure of Skorpion Zinc Mine and Refinery in April, resulting in the loss of more than 1 500 jobs.

1. In 2017, when Skorpion - owned by Vedanta Resources PLC – outsourced activities to a mining contractor Basil Read, our delegation visited State House in opposition to this arrangement. We knew very well that we needed to act fast to extend the life of Skorpion. As a result, we had two meetings with the Prime Minister on 9 November 2018 and in February 2019 and we cautioned her of the foreseeable impacts. Consequently, the Prime Minister tasked the minister mines and energy, Tom Alweendo, to hold tripartite consultative meetings with the two mines (Skorpion and Rosh Pinah Zinc Mine) and the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) with the aim of avoiding mine closure.

Unfortunately for mysterious reasons, the tasked minister started holding meetings

with the two mines in the absence of MUN.

2. Skorpion’s closure could have been circumvented, noting that Vedanta

has always wanted to invest in the other zinc deposits found at Gergarub Mine, just

opposite Skorpion. To date, Skorpion has made an immense investment conducting exploration and feasibility studies of Gergarub, however, due to the lack of government interventions, the squabbles between the two mines - which are both shareholders of Gergarub - have put an end to mining prospects at this new mine.

3. We have established on good grounds that the two mines have been scrambling

for the soul of Rosh Pinah town, with each capitalising on the weakness of the

other. We are fully aware of the meetings which were held at State House in which Vedanta management assured the president of more investments at Skorpion. Skorpion’s reserves,

resources and multimillion-dollar assets are still valuable to render jobs to people. To our dismay, on the eve of Obed Kandjoze’s reshuffle from the mines ministry, he issued a license to Rosh Pinah Mine.

4. Our common denominator is that Namibia is blessed with abundant

resources, however, to borrow from your favourite quotation “we cannot eat these

resources”. Investors need to exploit our resources in exchange for job security and our country’s sustainable development. Foreign Direct Investment has been hogwash in our community. Having failed to regulate foreign mining giants has culminated into a calamitous situation where, for almost 10 years, the owners of Rosh Pinah Mine and Skorpion are granted a mining licence to mine Gergarub. Although this licence continues to be renewed by our government, there has been no demonstration and desire to open this mine by the so-called investors.

5. In 2017, when Skorpion wanted to retrench us and outsource mining activities to contractors, we consolidated forces with the labour ministry and brought the vice chairman of Vedanta to Namibia and managed to halt the retrenchment exercise. Now that the mine is closed, we recommended to the mines ministry to summon the chairman of Vedanta in Namibia to come and explain

what transpired at Skorpion and to further relay their developmental plan for the mine.

6. The story of Skorpion vis-à-vis the manner in which our government

representatives made it easy for the investors to close it is very saddening. I should admit that our government representatives do not seem to be fazed by the closure of the mine, which leaves me wondering about the direction we are

headed. The government cannot create employment for every Namibian, but

rather the government has created conducive environment for investors to invest in our country and create employment for Namibians.

7. But then you sometimes find some government representatives who do not

represent the government to the best of their abilities; in the process they fail in

their duties and subsequently they make government fail. An ordinary person might

think the government has failed, but it’s just this individual.

8. We cannot have a mine close and more than 1 500 Namibians sent into the streets and treat it as business as usual. One can expect that a delegation from certain ministries would evaluate the impact, but six months down the line, we have not heard anything.

9. We have signed a tripartite agreement between Skorpion, the MUN and government in which we pledged our commitment to explore options for the mine to reopen soon. To our surprise, we have now been unilaterally sidelined as government and Skorpion management

shamelessly continue to have meetings in isolation.

Rosh Pinah’s economic position was immensely attributed to by Skorpion

employees. If we do not work together and find solutions for the mine to reopen, Rosh Pinah will undoubtedly become a ghost town, just like Kombat. As it stands, Skorpion can reopen, provided that government comes on board rather than

being a spectator.

Petersen Kambinda is the former branch chairperson of Skorpion Zinc Mine. Email him at [email protected].