Novanam workers demand their share

Niël Terblanché

EMPLOYEES and former employees of Novanam gathered in front of different fishing factories operated by the company in both Walvis Bay and Lüderitz to protest against the fact that their rightful share in the company has never been honoured.

Their grievance is against the Executive Chairman of Novanam, who created a share account for workers in 1997 in order to demonstrate the company’s social responsibility in return for larger fishing quotas and a reduction in levies and taxes that the company paid towards the Namibian Government.

“After working for the company most of our lives, we discovered the existence of the share account. The scary part is that the company kept the existence of the shares that all workers are entitled to a secret. The company even used some of the money that has been earning rent in a share account without the workers ever knowing about it,” said one former worker that participated in the demonstration.

She said that a committee was created to manage the affairs of the workers’ shares but that only two members, chosen from the workers, were allowed at the meetings and that those people were forced never to reveal the existence of the shares.

During their demonstration in Walvis Bay and Lüderitz, former employees of the company handed a petition to the senior management of Novanam in which they demand that they should benefit from the shares that were allocated to them.

In Walvis Bay the Managing Director of Novanam, Edwin Kamatoto listened to the workers’ demands before promising that the issue will be taken up by the company’s board of directors. Kamatoto also promised to give feedback to the former workers about their demands.

The workers demanded that they be issued with share certificates and that they should be allowed to trade with the shares they are entitled to.

Instead of that, they demanded that a payout proposal made by their representative committee be finalized in order to receive the money that they are entitled to.

The workers also demanded that the company’s management must not wait for the Namibian Government to advise on the way forward.

“The government is an entity on its own just like the company,” the petition reads.

They further demanded that the company should disclose the number of fishing quotas and the monetary value of the quotas it received since the staff share account was created.

The workers also demanded that Angel Tordesillas should address them in person to explain who the beneficiaries of the share account are especially those workers that come from a previously disadvantaged background.

They further demanded the resignation of Miguel Tordesillas and Edwin Kamatoto and that the company must publicly apologize to the Namibian Nation because it abused parts of the Marine Resources Act to create the share account to unfairly benefit from their so-called social responsibility efforts.

The demonstrators demanded an answer from the company within seven days and made it clear that their protest action will continue until they receive clear answers.