Staff Reporter
THE Mine Workers Union of Namibia’s (MUN) Swakopmund Chairperson, Milton Augumeb, has rubbished claims that Swakop Uranium workers, who are represented by the Mine Workers Union, have all left the organization to join a newly formed union.
In a memo leaked by AR leader Job Amupanda, Augumeb penned a letter to all Swakop Uranium MUN members pleading with them to stay with the union. “I am writing to you today to express my concern regarding your decision to resign from our union and join the newly registered union. I understand that you have lost faith in our current national leadership, and that this has led you to seek an alternative organization to represent your interests,” Augumeb said in the letter.
In the letter which he leaked, Amupanda said Husab mine (Swakop Uranium) Chairperson has acknowledged that the workers have lost faith in the corrupt Swapo Union MUN and has confirmed that the workers want to resign.
“He is now on his knees saying ‘Please, please don’t leave me’ ‘please, please, I will love you better.’ It is sad, but Milton must just be encouraged to join the workers who are going to RU! There is no need to plead with the Union that sells Workers for t-shirts and taxi money!” Amupanda said.
Responding to this, Augumeb, however, said that Amupanda has achieved next to nothing since his departure from the SWAPO party.
“My message to him is, yes indeed as a leader, I am begging, please, I will take better care of you (the workers). I have to make sure that I have to protect their interests. I find it ironic for an aspiring presidential candidate to mingle in activities of lower-level branch issues and personally attack the branch leader, that’s a low blow. I would really advise him, it is better to fix the problem from within then jump ship. Job has jumped ship from SWAPO a long time ago, what has he achieved since then? After that, he grabbed land, how much land has he successfully grabbed? None. As a young man, he is still learning, he needs to solve this issue internally,” Augumeb said.
The chairperson of MUN at Swakopmund, however, admitted that the union has had some trouble as they are not effective as an entity, in terms of the things that they are dealing with internally. He, however, added that in terms of labour relations at Swakop Uranium, workers do not have any issues.
“Till now we are yet to receive any resignations, we were just proactive in stopping the narrative. When the discussion starts, as a leader, you have to address it or people will make their decision. The RU was registered recently, and everybody is aware of that. We are not going to allow the exodus of workers to AU or RU,” Augumeb said.
CAPTION: File photo for illustrative purposes only.
