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02:56Last update on: 12 Aug 2013
The Namibian
Mon 12 Aug 2013
SMS Of The Day * MINISTRY of Gender and Child Welfare, TEARS are rolling down as I write this SMS. The killing of women in Namibia is now like reciting a poem. Are we really getting the protection we deserve while women not being treated as part of this c Food For Thought * SO the Zimbabwe elections were free and peaceful and not free and fair? Bouquets And Brickbats * NURSES at Katutura Hospital must stop wearing those big plastic sandals at work because they are not the official working shoes. We want to see you looking smart and beautiful with your full uniform. SMS Of The Day * THIS nation is in dire need of a massive conference on housing. When we experienced a crisis in the education sector a crisis-control brain-storming conference was organised which resulted in the best deal ever for the Namibian child, nam Food For Thought * BOURGEOISIE has become a daily occupation if not the order of the day of the upper-echelons, President Hifikepunye Pohamba we urge you to revisit this unpatriotic geocentricism among your staff and the well-connected, for everybody to r Bouquets And Brickbats * COMMISSIONER of Prisons, can you please explain the strategies you use to appoint officers to certain positions? It is my observation that you are being fed with wrong information then you just promote individuals without making p SMS Of The Day * I THINK Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda lost his belt because of this promoter and trainer. How can a world champion still be training at the Katutura Youth Complex where there is not enough equipment. I think they must follow the example of Ha Food For Thought * NAMIBIA Dairies are unable to match low prices of imported milk and this ultimately means the consumer will have to pay more for local milk. Look at the prices of the local chicken. All these profits are going in the pockets of a few in Bouquets And Brickbats * I AM pleased to hear that Cabinet has responded positively to the proposal of Namibia Dairies to support the industry. The restrictions which support the industry by reducing competition to ensure the survival of the industry is a SMS Of The Day * CEO’s golden handshakes. Somewhere on our statute books there must be a provision that if a board of directors suspends/dismisses a CEO without due regard to legal provision (substantive/procedural law) such board must carry the costs for Food For Thought * JACKY Asheeke was so right with her last column- why are the fathers of the dead children not being prosecuted? (Reference to the children who died in shack fires last week) Our justice system still protects men over women. In this cont Bouquets And Brickbats * ALEXACTUS Kaure, your column in Friday’s newspaper opened my eyes. One hardly finds impartial case study analysers in Namibia. Let’s not destroy the Polytechnic’s strong foundation (Tjivikua) as yet. At least wait until the transf
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THE NAMIBIAN - OPINIONS - EDITORIALS
| 2013-08-02
Simply Collateral Damage?
SIDNEY Martin, the multi-millionaire cattle-breeder, a magnate in an assortment of businesses, N$4,4m Ferrari owner... is not an angel. He must have stepped on too many people’s toes [including business partners]. Some who know him say he is shrewd, if not outright ruthless, in his business dealings. He may, therefore, deserve harsh treatment, as karma goes. But his clash with Namibia’s Agricultural Bank should be viewed from another angle.
Last week, Martin’s Witvlei Meat lost its latest court battle with the Agribank, which is demanding that the company be evicted from the abattoir which it has been leasing from the bank at Witvlei, in the Omaheke Region about 150km east of Windhoek.
Witvlei Meat has been leasing the slaughterhouse from the Agribank since 2006. Agribank had paid N$11 million to acquire the abattoir from !Uri !Khubis Abattoir (Pty) Ltd, which went bankrupt in 2004. !Uri !Khubis built the slaughterhouse largely with a N$50 million loan from Agribank. If it sounds confusing, it is, but such are the legalities that Agribank still had to pay N$11m without having recouped its N$50m loan from !Uri !Khubis.
Anyway, Agribank is arguing that Witvlei Meat, which exports beef mainly to Norway and has an annual turnover of about N$120m, is illegally operating from its abattoir because their lease agreement expired in 2008 and that Witvlei Meat had failed to take up a previous offer to buy the abattoir for N$15million.
Witvlei argue that they did, indeed, offer to buy the abattoir for N$15m in August 2009 when the N$62 500 monthly lease was extended.
In January 2010 the Agribank gave the offer to the government for approval but the Cabinet allegedly said the sale must be done at “market value” set at N$40,2m by 2011 when the reply was given to Witvlei Meat.
It appears a deadlock ensued until last year when Agribank asked the courts to have Witvlei evicted. High Court Judge Dave Smuts ordered that Witvlei Meat had no right to continue operating from the abattoir.
What seems lost in the debacle is that 160 jobs [Witvlei Meat claims to be the single largest employer in Omaheke] and hundreds of dependents are at risk of losing an income. In fact, the eviction order could be effected any moment and it is not as if Witvlei Meat can simply pack up and operate from another place.
Courts are there to interpret and adjudicate based on the law [including contracts]. So one can perhaps not fault Judge Smuts. But the Agribank surely is being heartless towards the workers and being shortsighted with regard to the wider economic impact the closure of a successful business such as Witvlei Meat would have at the settlement and in the Omaheke Region – probably blinded by their dealings with Martin, who appears to be reticent and careless in the matter. Witvlei even missed a deadline to pay security for their Supreme Court appeal against Smuts’ ruling.
Yet it is the Agribank’s stance that is most unacceptable. In the same week that Witvlei Meat lost its case, this newspaper reported that Agribank was being lenient towards BEE farmers who owe N$644 million [N$320m in arrears] for farms that were bought with government subsidies called the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme.
The hypocrisy is infuriating because it appears they care nothing for the workers. But they dare not take back farms because many are owned by the elite in government and the private sector. It matters not to Agribank, seemingly, that many of the elites keep the farms more as trophies and leisure centres than for agricultural production, anyway.
A similar situation is unfolding in the east of Kavango, in the Ndiyona consituency, where the Namibia Development Corporation and Minister of Agriculture John Mutorwa were trying to kick out a company that is leasing the Shitemo agricultural project. Just like at Witvlei, little consideration appears to have been given to the multi-million dollar investments made as well as the people reliant on the income from the production of the farm.
Without making it obvious, it appears the people who take such decisions at Agribank or the agriculture ministry and NDC are more interested in their powers rather than the well-being of the people who need the jobs most.
When the elite fight their battles, they must please consider who gets harmed most and not treat those on the periphery as mere collateral damage as if we are in an unavoidable war.
Witvlei Meat has been leasing the slaughterhouse from the Agribank since 2006. Agribank had paid N$11 million to acquire the abattoir from !Uri !Khubis Abattoir (Pty) Ltd, which went bankrupt in 2004. !Uri !Khubis built the slaughterhouse largely with a N$50 million loan from Agribank. If it sounds confusing, it is, but such are the legalities that Agribank still had to pay N$11m without having recouped its N$50m loan from !Uri !Khubis.
Anyway, Agribank is arguing that Witvlei Meat, which exports beef mainly to Norway and has an annual turnover of about N$120m, is illegally operating from its abattoir because their lease agreement expired in 2008 and that Witvlei Meat had failed to take up a previous offer to buy the abattoir for N$15million.
Witvlei argue that they did, indeed, offer to buy the abattoir for N$15m in August 2009 when the N$62 500 monthly lease was extended.
In January 2010 the Agribank gave the offer to the government for approval but the Cabinet allegedly said the sale must be done at “market value” set at N$40,2m by 2011 when the reply was given to Witvlei Meat.
It appears a deadlock ensued until last year when Agribank asked the courts to have Witvlei evicted. High Court Judge Dave Smuts ordered that Witvlei Meat had no right to continue operating from the abattoir.
What seems lost in the debacle is that 160 jobs [Witvlei Meat claims to be the single largest employer in Omaheke] and hundreds of dependents are at risk of losing an income. In fact, the eviction order could be effected any moment and it is not as if Witvlei Meat can simply pack up and operate from another place.
Courts are there to interpret and adjudicate based on the law [including contracts]. So one can perhaps not fault Judge Smuts. But the Agribank surely is being heartless towards the workers and being shortsighted with regard to the wider economic impact the closure of a successful business such as Witvlei Meat would have at the settlement and in the Omaheke Region – probably blinded by their dealings with Martin, who appears to be reticent and careless in the matter. Witvlei even missed a deadline to pay security for their Supreme Court appeal against Smuts’ ruling.
Yet it is the Agribank’s stance that is most unacceptable. In the same week that Witvlei Meat lost its case, this newspaper reported that Agribank was being lenient towards BEE farmers who owe N$644 million [N$320m in arrears] for farms that were bought with government subsidies called the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme.
The hypocrisy is infuriating because it appears they care nothing for the workers. But they dare not take back farms because many are owned by the elite in government and the private sector. It matters not to Agribank, seemingly, that many of the elites keep the farms more as trophies and leisure centres than for agricultural production, anyway.
A similar situation is unfolding in the east of Kavango, in the Ndiyona consituency, where the Namibia Development Corporation and Minister of Agriculture John Mutorwa were trying to kick out a company that is leasing the Shitemo agricultural project. Just like at Witvlei, little consideration appears to have been given to the multi-million dollar investments made as well as the people reliant on the income from the production of the farm.
Without making it obvious, it appears the people who take such decisions at Agribank or the agriculture ministry and NDC are more interested in their powers rather than the well-being of the people who need the jobs most.
When the elite fight their battles, they must please consider who gets harmed most and not treat those on the periphery as mere collateral damage as if we are in an unavoidable war.
Comments
i really dont know what the fuss is about? did martin also got borrow frm GIPF and failed to pay back? or did he buy his ferrari from hi sweat and blood? If it was bought from his honestly aquired money, let the man be! It was his dream to drive one and now he has it, just like any other person dreaming of buying him/herself something beautifull! talk about all the money wasted and stolen by the elite!!!1 - barbi
Agribank was wrong to take this matter to court in the first place. Witvlei is an employer and noting the fact that employment in our country is high Agribank should have negotiated a deal with Witvlei so it could keep on operating. They are acting unfairly and unjustly towards Witvlei where repossession is concerned. - Phillipus Tobias
Agribank was wrong to take this matter to court in the first place. Witvlei is an employer and noting the fact that employment in our country is high Agribank should have negotiated a deal with Witvlei so it could keep on operating. They are acting unfairly and unjustly towards Witvlei where repossession is concerned. - Phillipus Tobias
i really dont know what the fuss is about? did martin also got borrow frm GIPF and failed to pay back? or did he buy his ferrari from hi sweat and blood? If it was bought from his honestly aquired money, let the man be! It was his dream to drive one and now he has it, just like any other person dreaming of buying him/herself something beautifull! talk about all the money wasted and stolen by the elite!!!1 - barbi
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(August 12)
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