without special permission, it has not felt obligated by the World Court opinion or U.N. resolutions to take similar action regarding Namibia.

*

have

According to the Department of Commerce, 25 six U.S. firms affiliates or licenses to prospect in Namibia: Getty Oil Company, United States Steel, Bethlehem Steel, Standard Oil of California, Texaco, and Nord Resources of New Mexico. (Standard, Texaco, and Getty are involved in the strategic search for oil, one of the few important minerals not found in Namibia or South Africa.)

Numerous U.S. companies sell their products in Namibia through South African subsidiaries (an IBM 360/30 computer is used at Consolidated Diamond Mines). Several have estalished offices in the territory to facilitate sales: Burroughs, Canada Dry, Firestone, Galion, General Tire and Rubber, National Cash Register, Royal Crown Cola, Mobil, Singer, Valvoline, and Caltex (owned by Texaco and Standard Oil of California).

American Metal Climax and Newmont Mining, through their stake in Tsumeb, have an interest in maintaining the power structure that many Namibians seek to upset. But as recent events shown, the companies cannot control, and perhaps can't even predict, Namibia's future.

Tsumeb's impact in Namibia can be analyzed from several angles:

(1) is the largest private employer;

(2) is the major extractor of base minerals; and

(3) its investment contributes financially and psychologically to

South African control.

TSUMEB OWNERS

American Metal Climax (AMAX) and Newmont Mining Company 26 each directly

**

own 29 percent of the shares of Tsumeb Corporation. They are each stockholders in the O'Okiep Copper Company of South Africa,] which itself owns 9.5 percent of Tsumeb Corporation. Newmont owns 57.5 percent of O'Okiep, and AMAX owns 17.7 percent. Together, the two U.S. firms own an estimated 65 percent of Tsumeb. Each has 6 representatives on the 15-person board of directors. See appendices for details on AMAX and Newmont.

27

There are ten other recorded shareholders in Tsumeb, but only three have significant stakes. All six companies with major interests are registered outside Namibia.

For a fuller account, see NAMIBIA: U,S. Corporate Involvement, by Jennifer Davis and Winifred Courtney, which can be ordered for $.50 from the American Committee on Africa, 164 Madison Ave., N.Y., N.Y., 10016.

** It was recently reported that O'Okiep is involved in an exploration venture within the Damara "homeland," in northwestern Namibia. (Financial Mail, 8/4/72, p. 386) See page 3.

Tsumeb Corporation is itself the major shareholder in Tsumeb Exploration Company Limited. South West Africa Company owns the 25 percent of the stock not held by Tsumeb. The company also has a 20 percent investment in a joint venture with Anglo-Transvaal Investment Company of South Africa, involving prospecting in Namibia and Botswana.29

TSUMEB'S LABOR POLICIES

In an interview with a reporter, Tsumeb manager, J.P. Ratledge said "All our Ovambos are working and there is no sign of unrest. " 30 Three days later nearly 4,000 Black employees stopped work at Tsumeb and joined their compatriots in a massive protest action.

With a work force of about 6,000, Tsumeb has more employees than any other private industry in Namibia. The company is also Namibia's largest employer of contract laborers.31

Over 98 percent of Tsumeb's African employees are contract laborers recruited from Ovamboland (only a few miles north of the town of Tsumeb) and Kavangoland. From the beginning of Tsumeb's operation in 1948 until early 1972, the company has relied on SWANLA (South West African Native Labour Association) for recruitment of these workers. Each SWANLA recruit received an order number and signed a standard contract, which read:

The said master agrees to hire the service of the said
servant(s) and the said servant(s) agree(s) to render the
said master his/their service at all fair and reasonable
times in the capacity of
commencing on

for

And it is further agreed that the said master shall pay to the said servant(s) wages at the rate shown against the name(s) to the said servant(s) and that such wages shall be paid monthly. 33

During December 1971 and January 1972, 15,000 contract workers went on strike throughout Namibia. Initially, on December 14, 5,000 men refused to work in Windhoek, crippling essential services. Within a few days the strike had spread to other areas, closing mines and factories, shutting down construction sites, and slowing farm production. Thousands of workers demanded and were given -- repatriation to their homes in African reserves, even though all strikes by Black workers are illegal. Authorities made desperate attempts to recruit workers from other areas to break the strike, but their efforts were so futile that in Windhoek authorities were forced to use white children in jobs vacated by strikers.

In the African reserve of Ovamboland, where almost all of the strikers live, a coordinating committee was formed. In a leaflet prepared by the committee and circulated widely, their demands were listed:

*We do not want the contract system merely to be
improved and that it be given another name.

*We want the barricade (at the northern border with
Angola and patrolled by South African policemen)
removed.

Any method of selling people meets with our dis-
approval.

*We want employment agreements to include the following:
Liberty for those to do the work they want to do
and of which they have experience and knowledge;
The freedom to change one's place of employment
without the fear of landing in jail first;

We also want freedom to take our families with us
and have the right to visit people when we want.
*We want to let a man get payment for the work he is
doing and not according to his colour; let all be
given the same treatment.

* There should be employment bureaus in all tribal
regions and towns.

* When an employee looks for employment he should
know what wages are paid for the work.

* There should be mutual respect between employer and
employee.

* Employees should be paid sufficiently to buy their
own food and to provide their own transport needs.
* In place of the existing passbook we want an iden-
tification card which should comprise the following:
name, tribal area (with the insertion of SWA citizen
behind the name of the region), male or female, iden-
그목
tity number, and a photograph of the holder.

The strikers scored a major success: their action was the first African protest in history to force labor concessions from the South African government. Even so, the basic structure of the contract system remains intact.

On January 20, an agreement was formulated by representatives from employers, the South African government, and the Ovambo and Kavango

tribal chiefs. The strikers were unrepresented. The result was described by South African Minister of Bantu Administration M.C. Botha as "a treaty or agreement between the Governments of Ovambo or Okavango on the one hand and the Government of the Republic on the other."35

A few of the workers' stated demands were met. In place of the old standard contract, there must now be a written agreement between each employee and his employer stipulating conditions of work, wages, leave pay, and length of service. The employer must provide the employee with a copy of the conditions of employment in his indigenous language. Workers are allowed some choice of employer, and "it will no longer be so difficult for employees to change from one employer to another."36 Employers must provide free medical care; and when they supply food, it must meet governmental standards for nutritional value.

In place of recruiting agencies the tribal authorities have set up offices where "an employer or group of employers under control of the labour official offer employment in a specific industry to work-seekers at an employment office and may there enter into an agreement with them."37

Tsumeb and all employers who use contract workers adopted a new contract in accordance with the agreement. The language of this "Agreement of Employment" is much more contemporary "employer" and "employee" are used in place of "master" and "servant". The document in use by Tsumeb sets a 6 month period of service, with 180 shifts of 8 hours each. Employees are now allowed to take unpaid leave to return to their homes "for a reasonable period." At the end of the contract period employees receive 7 days leave with pay.

The company agrees in the contract to supply transportation for African employees to the mine. Return fare is also provided for those who complete their terms or are fired by the company. Those who terminate on their own initiative have to pay their own way home.

The greatest change in policy contained in the new contract is a provision which states that an employee can quit at any time without giving any notice:

The employer further agrees that it will in no event or
circumstance invoke any criminal sanctions or institute or
cause to be instituted any criminal proceeding against the
employee for refusal to work or for any breach of this
agreement.

Under the Masters' and Servants' Act of South West Africa, breach of contract is a criminal offense. Although applicable to both parties the act has primarily been used to discipline workers who were not sufficiently subservient. No strikers were charged under this act during the recent strike, probably because of South African concern about international reaction, but ten years ago about 60 Tsumeb employees were arrested for refusing to work in the company's new smelter. Company officials say they were afraid of "evil spirits" in the new and noisy structure, but Namibians

report that the issue was the plant's dirty air which the workers would have to breath all day. In any case, Tsumeb officials ngtified the police, who charged the workers with violating the act.38

Nor did workers fare better during the recent strike in having their major demands met. As South African newspaper commentator Stanley Uys wrote, "The contract system is another term for the migratory system, and as a system it remains intact."39 Workers still must carry the same passbooks, and the northern police post has not been abolished. In fact, several South African para-military units have been sent to Ovamboland to reinforce the police already there, and reports of clashes continue to filter out despite an official news blackout.

There is no provision in the agreement which would allow workers' families to accompany them to their places of employment.

Tsumeb Corporation was one of the first firms outside Windhoek to be struck. The managing director's confident predictions (see page 9) exemplify the level of contact between management and Black workers within the company.

When white foremen came to work at the Tsumeb mine on December 18, they found almost no African miners on the job. More than 3,700 of them had decided to remain in the compounds until they could return to Ovamboland and join their fellow strikers. That afternoon, Mr. G. White, Chief Bantu Affairs Commissioner for South West Africa, flew to Tsumeb. His efforts and those of Tsumeb management to dissuade the men failed, and the next day similar action was taken by 500 contract workers at Tsumeb's Kombat mine.

The following week all white Tsumeb employees had their leave canceled, as the company made desperate efforts to keep the smelter in operation. If the smelter had been shut down, it would have taken several weeks to reopen it; but it was kept up at about one-third capacity."

A few days after Christmas, J.P. Ratledge, Tsumeb general manager flew to Pretoria, where he and other employer representatives met with the South African Minister of Bantu Administration, who has authority for African affairs in Namibia.41

D. O. Pearce, Tsumeb's managing director and a Newmont vice-president, I flew from New York to Namibia in mid-January. Along with other employers, he met with Ovambo chiefs from the tribal council and then joined in the talks that produced the new agreement.

...

Newmont has expressed pleasure with the arrangements in several statements: "The recent strike has ended satisfactorily for employees, employers, and Governments. Its peaceful settlement is a notable occurrence, by which most of the demands of the striking workers were granted. "42

While this conclusion is hard to reconcile with the facts presented above, it is not surprising, since Pearce met no strikers during his trip and after returning expressed almost complete unawareness of their viewpoint.43