The Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) has launched a series of roundtable discussions across the country’s mining regions to strengthen engagement between national leadership and regional membership on issues shaping the daily realities of mineworkers.
The engagements also form part of the union’s 40-year anniversary celebrations.
The first roundtable, hosted by the Namibia Miners Investment Trust (NAMIT) and NAM-MIC Holdings, was recently convened in Swakopmund under the theme “From the Shaft to the Chamber: Workers’ Voices, National Choices.”
The engagement gathered union leadership, members and key stakeholders for discussions on the union’s historical milestone, financial performance and member benefit programmes.
Over the past four decades, the union has transitioned from a primarily defensive labour organisation into an institution actively engaged in economic empowerment. The union said this transformation is reflected in its investment instruments, namely NAMIT, NAMITVEST and NAM-MIC, which are valued at over N$700 million.
Through these entities, the union has supported over 2600 shareholders and grant beneficiaries across all 14 regions. It also supports small and medium enterprise development as well as housing schemes to extend the impact of mining wealth into broader communities.
The NAMIT EduFund grant has so far empowered 580 recipients, most of them women, through tertiary study. The union noted that it is the first union in the country and among the first in SADC to secure full legal cover for its members.
The union revealed that members own a 25% stake in NAMMIC through NAMITVEST, making ordinary mineworkers, as well as ex-miners and their descendants, direct shareholders in the company that invests for them. This is funded by a monthly payroll deduction at employers such as NAMDEB, Swakop Uranium and SPAR Oranjemund.
Discussions also focused on key national policy areas, such as Labour Act reforms, government beneficiation strategies, equity participation in mining projects, local content development, skills transfer and social protection frameworks for mineworkers.
The roundtable discussion was attended by the Minister of Justice and Labour Relations, Honourable Wise Immanuel, who addressed participants on labour reform, worker protection, and employment policy.
“Workers’ voices must not remain confined to the shaft, they must transcend the operational circumstances and confinement, so that it finds its way into polices, plans, and legislations. Freedom of association, for those that may inform themselves through engagement of literature.”
He revealed that the country has ratified the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention 87 that guarantees freedom of association and Convention 98 that covers the right to organise and collective bargaining.
“The ratifications of government of those two Conventions are primarily to give effect to freedom of association as one of the first principles that governs the relationship between the tripartite partners” he stated.
Immanuel further emphasised the government’s commitment to protecting workers’ rights.
“What is required is not confrontation, but partnership between government, workers, and employers to continuously improve our legislative and industrial relations framework. Engagement must be done in good faith. Regulatory arrogance, economic power arrogance, and social arrogance must be rejected. Government, employers, and workers share a collective responsibility to ensure harmonious industrial relations and sustainable economic progress,” he said.
