D-day for Ramatex factory

GOVERNMENT is expected to decline an offer by Malaysian company Ramatex Berhad to buy its Windhoek factory.

Today is the deadline for Government to respond to the offer made to it last month by Ramatex Executive Director Albert Lim during a visit to Namibia and reiterated in a letter by the company to Prime Minister Nahas Angula a week ago. Yesterday a committee chaired by Finance Permanent Secretary Calle Schlettwein discussed the proposal again with officials from the Ministries of Trade, Labour and Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General’s Office, the Offshore Development Company (ODC) and the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW).They will brief the Prime Minister today on their discussions.WORRIES AND IMPLICATIONS Schlettwein said he could not say what the committee would advise the Prime Minister, but said the committee had weighed various options and scenarios from buying the factory to its closure.”Government is worried about the economic impact the factory’s closure could have as well as the implications an outright buyout would have,” said Schlettwein.He said Government did not have the technical expertise to run a textile factory such as Ramatex.Schlettwein said Government still hoped, together with Ramatex, that a buyer could be found to buy the factory.This proposal was put to Ramatex last week.Should Government refuse to buy out the factory – to which Ramatex is said to have attached a price tag of around N$500 million – the offer will lapse by the end of today.Ramatex offered Government the option of buying the factory in partnership with a private-sector partner.TURNAROUND TURNDOWN Last week Ramatex rejected Government’s proposal to prevent the factory closure in the form of a turnaround strategy for its Windhoek textile operations.According to the factory, it is in a dire financial position and Government’s action plan was too drawn-out and lacked a timeframe.Government has offered the factory more incentives for service provision and the training of Namibians in exchange for Ramatex keeping its doors open in Namibia.In its letter to Government last week, Ramatex said that should Government reject the offer to buy the factory, Ramatex would have to consider “other options”.In all likelihood, the company will then shut down its Windhoek operations, having said in the past that Namibians were not meeting expected production targets and that it had received fewer orders from international buyers because of a workers’ union campaign against poor labour relations at the factory.The factory has steered clear of publicly saying that it wants to pull out of Namibia, insisting that negotiations on the way forward are still ongoing.However, it has emptied its spinning and knitting factories of any machinery, much of which has already left the country.Workers from these departments have been deployed in the garment factories instead.At least 6 000 local and foreign jobs are at stake, should the factory close down.However, local workers say that for too long Government ignored complaints of their poor working conditions and warnings that the factory’s future was in jeopardy.They believe the money that Government is considering ploughing into sustaining operations could be better spent on other training and employment opportunities for them.Yesterday a committee chaired by Finance Permanent Secretary Calle Schlettwein discussed the proposal again with officials from the Ministries of Trade, Labour and Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General’s Office, the Offshore Development Company (ODC) and the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW).They will brief the Prime Minister today on their discussions.WORRIES AND IMPLICATIONS Schlettwein said he could not say what the committee would advise the Prime Minister, but said the committee had weighed various options and scenarios from buying the factory to its closure.”Government is worried about the economic impact the factory’s closure could have as well as the implications an outright buyout would have,” said Schlettwein.He said Government did not have the technical expertise to run a textile factory such as Ramatex.Schlettwein said Government still hoped, together with Ramatex, that a buyer could be found to buy the factory.This proposal was put to Ramatex last week.Should Government refuse to buy out the factory – to which Ramatex is said to have attached a price tag of around N$500 million – the offer will lapse by the end of today. Ramatex offered Government the option of buying the factory in partnership with a private-sector partner.TURNAROUND TURNDOWN Last week Ramatex rejected Government’s proposal to prevent the factory closure in the form of a turnaround strategy for its Windhoek textile operations.According to the factory, it is in a dire financial position and Government’s action plan was too drawn-out and lacked a timeframe.Government has offered the factory more incentives for service provision and the training of Namibians in exchange for Ramatex keeping its doors open in Namibia.In its letter to Government last week, Ramatex said that should Government reject the offer to buy the factory, Ramatex would have to consider “other options”.In all likelihood, the company will then shut down its Windhoek operations, having said in the past that Namibians were not meeting expected production targets and that it had received fewer orders from international buyers because of a workers’ union campaign against poor labour relations at the factory.The factory has steered clear of publicly saying that it wants to pull out of Namibia, insisting that negotiations on the way forward are still ongoing.However, it has emptied its spinning and knitting factories of any machinery, much of which has already left the country.Workers from these departments have been deployed in the garment factories instead.At least 6 000 local and foreign jobs are at stake, should the factory close down.However, local workers say that for too long Government ignored complaints of their poor working conditions and warnings that the factory’s future was in jeopardy.They believe the money that Government is considering ploughing into sustaining operations could be better spent on other training and employment opportunities for them.