Road contractor retrenches 300

CHINESE road contractor has laid off 300 workers since September last year after government failed to pay the company N$290 million owed over eight months.

This month, China Henan International Cooperation, which is constructing a 230-km stretch between Grootfontein and Otjinene, could not pay 150 others. The contract is in two phases - the 130-km stretch between Otjinene and Okamatapati, and the 100km stretch between Okamatapati and Grootfontein. The Otjinene-Okamatapati phase was completed in December 2016, and was handed over to President Hage Geingob in December. It is not clear when the Okamatapati-Grootfontein phase that was due last month will be completed since the company has stopped work. Furious workers gathered at the company's headquarters, demanding their salaries, which were supposed to be paid on Wednesday last week. A senior official, who cannot be named because of a contractual clause, told The Namibian at the site that government's failure to meet its financial obligations has affected the company's operations. He said government last paid the company in September last year and the company is owed N$294 million, including N$147 milliom for the Otjinene-Okamatapati phase. The Namibian understands that the first phase of the project cost N$575 million, while the second phase will cost an estimated N$522 million. The official said the contractor's parent company in China has been paying the workers from September until December, adding that when the parent company could not pay salaries for January, they had to retrench 100 people. The official said they were also forced to make some workers do menial work at the campsite, and cut their salaries to avoid sending them straight home. The workers were told that if they did not like the arrangement, they were free to go. “The government is being unfair to us, and this cannot continue,” he charged, adding that even subcontractors had no work since January.