Owners tackle Otjozondu dispute

THE new Australian owners of Otjozondu Mining (Pty) Ltd, Shaw River Resources, met with the Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) and employees of the Otjozondu mine on Saturday to discuss recent articles which appeared in the local media.

Three weeks ago, an English daily newspaper reported that the employees at the Otjozondu manganese mine demanded improvements, which both the MUN and the management of the mine thought were unfair.In November last year, the MUN reached an agreement with Otjozondu, which included a five per cent pay raise and monthly housing and lunch allowances. According to a media release issued on Friday, the country manager of Shaw River Resources, Ashley Jones, said it has come to light that some of the alleged statements made by workers had been borne out of frustrations with previous promises not kept. Jones said discussions were amicable, and that ‘numerous positive outcomes’ will stem from that meeting. ‘We cannot hold Shaw River Resources responsible for promises made by the previous owners. We are starting on a clean slate, and future relations look positive’, branch chairperson of the MUN at Otjozondu, Markus Makaza was quoted as saying in the release. Makaza previously told the daily newspaper that the conditions the mine employees are working in dictate that the company should do more for the workers. ‘To ensure that we continue to engage our staff in a constructive way, we have contracted the services of Outsourcing Solutions, experts in human resources.As you can appreciate, a process such as this takes time, but we are happy with the progress made thus far’, Jones continued.Australian Shaw River resources purchased 75.5 per cent of the Otjozondu Manganese Project in February this year. The mine is located approximately 150 km north-east of Windhoek. Shaw River will undertake feasibility studies this year to guide development for an open-cut mining operation, commencing production in 2012 and doubling the production rate by 2015. – Nampa

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