Construction camps are not for accomodation

The Swakopmund Town Council has once again reinforced its opinion not to allow staff members to overnight at construction camps which fall under its jurisdiction. Council decided this at the recent meeting after an application was received from the contractor currently upgrading the Swakopmund-Henties Bay-Uis road.

The application was received by Zhong Mei Engineering Group (ZMEG), which intends to accommodate a maximum of ten employees on their current lease site located close to Mile 6. The company, which is currently busy with the tarring of the Swakopmund-Henties Bay-Uis road, aims to accommodate the staff close to the crush stone equipment to expedite their operations for the completion of the project.
In the Agenda of the recent meeting Council turned down the application. It is argued that should the application be considered in a positive light, “similar applications to accommodate employees on construction camp sites might follow.”
ZMEG argued that during the construction of the plant about ten employees will be accommodated onsite, while after completion this number would decrease to five or six to operate the equipment. “Our only purpose is just that we can do our best to complete this road in order to add to the distribution layout for the Namibia Traffic System (sic),” the application by ZMEG states.
It was not the first application of this type that Council did not approve though. The company Unik Construction Engineering Namibia, which has been awarded the contract to upgrade the road between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay (MR44) behind the dunes to a freeway standard, got a similar answer. Unik has set up a construction camp close to the turn-off to the B2 measuring 15 000 m². In this case it was also decided that the area may only be used for the exclusive purpose of establishing a construction site to store equipment and to establish a workshop – not as accommodation for staff.
Council has only decided twice to allow staff members to overnight on construction camps. Once for the Roads Contractor Company Limited (2001) and once for Le Bau CC (2008).