NWR’s Mile 14 hanging in limbo

NAMIBIA Wildlife Resorts’ (NWR) Mile 14 campsite is deteriorating and workers fear that the neglect and deterioration of facilities are being used to force them to resign without adequate compensation.

According to NWR workers at Mile 14, although they still receive salaries, the holiday camp’s infrastructure, including vehicles, is deteriorating in the extreme coastal climate and NWR seems to be ignoring requests for maintenance and upgrade.’They’ve left us here to look after the place, but they’ve left us with nothing to do our jobs with except broken cars and generators,’ said Moses Immanuel, who has worked at the camp since before Independence.’I think they want us to resign, but how can we without security,’ said Max Hamukoto.The workers said ‘nothing’s happened’ at the camp for the past two years.’The sea is taking the place and there were people here with ideas to build a new camp, but even their infrastructure is being damaged by the rough seas. In the meantime, fishermen and campers come here and litter all over the place, but we can’t tidy it up because all our vehicles are broken,’ said Immanuel. ‘Our generator is broken, so there’s no electricity, and we now have to hike to Swakopmund to get some groceries.’Mile 14 is hanging in limbo because the NWR is busy entering a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with a company called Pisces Investments, according to NWR’s Senior Manager of Operations, Sebulon Chicalu.Chicalu said the workers are still contractually employed by NWR until negotiations with Pisces Investments are concluded and the way forward is finalised.NWR’s other coastal campsites, namely Jak-kalsputz, Mile 72 and Mile 108, were outsourced to Tungeni Africa Investments, which is busy with multi-million dollar upgrades at these sites. Chicalu said infrastructure and workers, through mediation by the Namibia Public Workers Union (Napwu), at these sites have been transferred to Tungeni.’An agreement with Pisces will probably end like this. The Mile 14 workers and the infrastructure might be handed over to them,’ he said. ‘Negotiations are in progress and hopefully we’ll come to an agreement soon.’Numerous attempts to get comment from Napwu on the fate of the workers at Mile 14 proved futile. The Deputy Acting Secretary General of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), Moses Shiikwa, said the Mile 14 workers should communicate their grievances to the union. ‘If they belong to a union and they have problems, then they can come forward and we can address the matter,’ he said. adam@namibian.com.na