KATE BURLING, Walvis Bay | Friday 10.30pm.
WALVIS Bay’s future as the industrial heart of Namibia is being blighted by sour industrial relations, wildcat strikes and a cavalier attitude towards the process of tripartite negotiation, a senior Swapo MP warned yesterday.
Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry Wilfried Emvula delivered his stern message to some 90 participants in a specially convened labour relations discussion forum in the harbour town.
Emvula, who called the employers and union leaders together in his capacity as regional councillor and as a concerned member of the Walvis Bay community, said: “An unpleasant sense of alienation is beginning to sneak into our industrial relations.”
He deplored “surprise and wildcat strikes”, questioned the economic vision and management strategies of employers, and decried the resulting impression of Walvis Bay as a potential industrial giant fettered by labour squabbles.
Pulling no punches, Emvula warned that investors did not have to come to Namibia because they had plenty of other destinations from which to choose. If they felt in the least unsure about the security of their investment or worried by potential labour problems, they would simply take their money elsewhere, he said.
In a year that has witnessed a full-scale dock strike, several other strikes, stoppages and demonstrations against large and small businesses in the town – and even threats of industrial action in the specially protected Export Processing Zone (EPZ) – Emvula said Walvis Bay had already scared away investors. — The Namibian