THE strike at TransNamib sacrificed workers for unions’ ulterior motives and cost the country a staggering N$180 million in losses, says the president of the Namibian Employers’ Federation, Vekuii Rukoro.
In a statement issued yesterday, Rukoro said the strike had nothing to do with the welfare of TransNamib workers, as they were “simply sacrificed for ulterior agendas”. Deep-rooted political differences, especially between Swapo Party and the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), were said to have caused the strike as the National Union of Namibian Workers took the side of the ruling party.The unions claimed “RDP elements” were behind the suspension of TransNamib CEO Titus Haimbili.The opposition party has denied the allegations, saying it could not afford to inflict such serious economic harm on the country.Rukoro said preliminary calculations indicated that the illegal strike knocked off approximately N$180 million from Namibia’s GDP for 2008 in one week.It is not clear how that figure was arrived at.”This should never be allowed to happen again – not if we are serious to achieve our National Vision 2030 and to arrest the shameful record of 37 per cent unemployment,” Rukoro said.On Thursday, Cabinet tasked the interim Attorney General, Albert Kawana, to investigate and advise Government on appropriate measures to take regarding the TransNamib workers who publicly defied a court order.The Labour Court ruled the strike illegal and ordered strikers back to work, but the strike only ended four days later.Cabinet has also expressed concern over the major losses the labour unrest at TransNamib caused to clients of rail cargo and passenger services.Several petrol stations, especially in the South, ran out of fuel and the mining and fishing sectors were severely affected while the workers were toying-toying.In court papers supporting its urgent Labour Court application, TransNamib management said the company was losing N$5 million a day during the strike.The strike resulted in the tourist train, the Desert Express, being halted halfway to the North with tourists forced to find their own way to Etosha from Otjiwarongo.TransNamib is also facing a N$50 000 lawsuit after a consignment of fish from Luederitz was left to rot.Rukoro said the NEF hoped that the “appropriate measures” promised by Cabinet “will be forthcoming swiftly and be effective in terms of their intended purpose”.”It is high time for the President and Government to demonstrate leadership before they are rendered irrelevant by forces whose obvious agenda is just to achieve that,” he said.He commended the Government for the “strong and unequivocal position” it took against the illegal strike.”Law-abiding Namibians were watching in total disbelief when leaders of the two unions involved, publicly and repeatedly declared their contempt for the court order and their resolve to simply ignore it.Equally, potential international investors who considered Namibia a safe haven for their investments were rudely awakened when the contempt of court was met with no response from Government.The damage to the country’s image internationally is enormous,” he said.The unions claim that the Government was hypocritical with the court order.NUNW Secretary General Evilastus Kaaronda said the company had numerous court orders against it but showed blatant disrespect because the orders concerned workers, and Government had done nothing to enforce them until now.NEF spokesperson Tim Parkhouse said he was not aware of contempt of court on the part of TransNamib and was thus not at liberty to comment on Kaaronda’s remarks.Deep-rooted political differences, especially between Swapo Party and the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), were said to have caused the strike as the National Union of Namibian Workers took the side of the ruling party.The unions claimed “RDP elements” were behind the suspension of TransNamib CEO Titus Haimbili.The opposition party has denied the allegations, saying it could not afford to inflict such serious economic harm on the country.Rukoro said preliminary calculations indicated that the illegal strike knocked off approximately N$180 million from Namibia’s GDP for 2008 in one week.It is not clear how that figure was arrived at.”This should never be allowed to happen again – not if we are serious to achieve our National Vision 2030 and to arrest the shameful record of 37 per cent unemployment,” Rukoro said. On Thursday, Cabinet tasked the interim Attorney General, Albert Kawana, to investigate and advise Government on appropriate measures to take regarding the TransNamib workers who publicly defied a court order.The Labour Court ruled the strike illegal and ordered strikers back to work, but the strike only ended four days later.Cabinet has also expressed concern over the major losses the labour unrest at TransNamib caused to clients of rail cargo and passenger services.Several petrol stations, especially in the South, ran out of fuel and the mining and fishing sectors were severely affected while the workers were toying-toying.In court papers supporting its urgent Labour Court application, TransNamib management said the company was losing N$5 million a day during the strike.The strike resulted in the tourist train, the Desert Express, being halted halfway to the North with tourists forced to find their own way to Etosha from Otjiwarongo.TransNamib is also facing a N$50 000 lawsuit after a consignment of fish from Luederitz was left to rot.Rukoro said the NEF hoped that the “appropriate measures” promised by Cabinet “will be forthcoming swiftly and be effective in terms of their intended purpose”.”It is high time for the President and Government to demonstrate leadership before they are rendered irrelevant by forces whose obvious agenda is just to achieve that,” he said.He commended the Government for the “strong and unequivocal position” it took against the illegal strike.”Law-abiding Namibians were watching in total disbelief when leaders of the two unions involved, publicly and repeatedly declared their contempt for the court order and their resolve to simply ignore it.Equally, potential international investors who considered Namibia a safe haven for their investments were rudely awakened when the contempt of court was met with no response from Government.The damage to the country’s image internationally is enormous,” he said.The unions claim that the Government was hypocritical with the court order.NUNW Secretary General Evilastus Kaaronda said the company had numerous court orders against it but showed blatant disrespect because the orders concerned workers, and Government had done nothing to enforce them until now.NEF spokesperson Tim Parkhouse said he was not aware of contempt of court on the part of TransNamib and was thus not at liberty to comment on Kaaronda’s remarks.
