Over 2,500 black Namibian mineworkers went on strike over the Christmas and New Year period in a demand for improved wages and working conditions. There is evidence that their action was also prompted by resentment at the role of overseas multinational companies in exploiting Namibia's resources, and at the overtly pro-South African stance adopted by many white employers during the recent general elections.
Strike action was first reported on Friday 22 December, when about 2,000 of the 3,000 African and Coloured workers employed at the Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation's Rössing Uranium mine near Swakopmund stopped work. This is the most serious industrial dispute at Rössing to date. According to a mine spokesman, the dispute had arisen over the planned introduction of new wage rates, based on the internationally-recognised Patterson job evaluation system. The Rössing management maintained that the Patterson system would eliminate racial discrimination at the mine by placing both black and white workers on the same wage curve. Most employees, furthermore, stood to gain increases of between 10 and 20% from the beginning of 1979.
In a statement issued by Pastor Festus Naholo, SWAPO's National Secretary for Foreign Relations, however, SWAPO pointed out that while these increases meant that black workers would earn an additional R8 per month, the lowest paid white workers would receive an extra R100-200 per month. In other words, racial discrepancies would remain, even if the old two-tier division into those paid on the day rate system (i.e. the vast majority of black workers) and the staff rate system (including all whites) were abolished. This discovery had caused "widespread dissatisfaction" among the black workforce. (According to information supplied by RTZ in 1978, 1,821 out of a total of 2,163 hourly paid employees at Rössing were paid R230 a month or less at that time, while 717 out of a total of 835 monthly salaried staff received at least R440 a month, rising to more than R1,400. RTZ Fact Sheet No.2, 18.5.78)
Pastor Naholo, whose church ministry covers the Arandis township, developed by Rössing Uranium to accommodate its black employees, stated that there were a number of other grievances besides namely: * there was no protection from the poisonous effects of uranium radiation * the South African security police were responsible for bad treatment at the mine * the health and welfare of black workers were granted low priority and there was a lack of recreational facilities * black workers were accommodated in unsanitary single men's quarters while whites secured good housing in Swakopmund at nominal rent * Rössing's black employees had been prevented from getting the true picture across to overseas journalists who had been brought to the mine as part of a public relations exercise
In conclusion, SWAPO reaffirmed its opposition to multinational companies operating illegally in Namibia and in defiance of Decree No. 1 of the UN Council for Namibia, for the protection of the territory's natural resources. (SWAPO press statement issued in Windhoek 22.12.78)
In May 1978 RTZ reported that while family housing for black employees was available in Arandis, all Ovambo single and "single-status" employees (i.e. migrant workers) were housed in separate accommodation. (Fact Sheet No. 2 ibid) Other sources have reported that the Ovambo single men's quarters house 16-20 persons per room, while each white worker has his own room. The company police are also alleged to mount frequent raids, On 28 December the striking workers were reported to be back at work, but negotiations were continuing with the Rössing management. A committee was subsequently reported to have been established to investigate their grievances.
Over the next few days, however, at least three other mines were reported to be affected by industrial disputes. At the Kranzberg wolfram mine near Omaruru, owned by Noord Mining, 208 out of 270 black miners were sacked from their jobs after going on strike on 2 January to demand a wage increase. The 208 miners were put on a train back to Ovamboland that same evening and replacements sought. At the Uis tin mine, owned by the SA Iron and Steel Corporation (ISCOR), about 500 Ovambo and Damara workers went on a three day strike. At the Tsumeb copper mine, jointly owned by two US companies, mineworkers were also reported to be making pay demands though a strike did not develop.
On 2 January, the pro-DTA Windhoek Advertiser claimed that the police had discovered "a possible link" between the "SWAPO-inspired strike" at Rössing and a bomb explosion in a Swakopmund bakery on 30 December. No details or further evidence of any such link was produced, beyond a statement that it was "understood" that a number of senior officials at Rössing had allegedly received "threatening calls" from SWAPO members shortly before the blast. As with previous explosions in Windhoek, the police immediately announced that SWAPO was to blame. It appears that the explosion may have given the police the pretext they needed to remove Pastor Festus Naholo and others involved with events at Rössing from the scene. He and four other SWAPO members were detained in Swakopmund under the Terrorism Act; namely: Mr. Arthur Pickering (who is the first Coloured advocate to have been admitted to the bar in Namibia); Mr. Henry Boonzaaier, described as a Cape Coloured who, like Mr. Pickering, works for Rössing. Mr. Ombadja Oshuna, an Ovambo-speaking resident of Arandis township; and Mr. Philippus Namuleme, also Ovambo-speaking.
On 9 January the SABC announced the release of Pastor Naholo and two other men; by this time, all mines in Namibia were reported to be working normally.
