CSS employees’ shareholders

Rudi Bowe

The fifty-two permanent employees of Commercial Cold Storage (CCS) Namibia were recently added to the Erongo Marine Harambee Workers Trust and will be part of the Trust by a representative on the Board of Trustees.

This was made possible through an empowerment agreement between CCS and the Erongo Harambee Workers Trust that will allow all 207 permanent staff members of Erongo Marine Enterprises (EME) and CCS own 31% share-holding in CCS.
The Trust is exclusively for the Namibian workers permanently employed by Erongo Marine Enterprises, most of whom are employed as crew onboard our two trawler vessels and now CCS.
The establishment of the Erongo Marine Harambee Workers Trustin 2017 has EME at the forefront of driving localisation as it “empower, equip and transform” the lives of the workers at the fishing company. It is also one of the first fishing companies to have established a worker’s trust.
This initiative is also testimony to Oceana Group’s commitment to a performance-driven culture that positively impacts lives with the correct reward, designed to aid in the creation of an ownership mentality across the Group.
The Managing Director of Erongo Marine Enterprises and founder of the Erongo Marine Harambee Workers Trust Dr Martha Uumati, said that since 2017 just more than nine million Namibian Dollars have been paid out to our employees equally on an annual basis, including 2020 and 2021. Considering the surreal times of Covid-19 during the past two years, this has been a welcome lifeline to many of our employees.
Dr Uumati, said “This is a true testimony of our company’s motto to empower, equip and trans-form lives.”
“With this said, I want to call on all employees to take ownership of our shared responsibility to ensure the success of your company. Let’s continue to work hard” Dr Uumati said.
Dr Uumati encourage their fellow players in the industry and across all sectors in Namibia to heed to the call of greater employee participation and empowerment. “Let us not forget – it is on the backbone of employees that the success of a company is built.”
Chairperson of the Erongo Marine Harambee Workers Trust, Charlett Kambongarera said that since inception, employees have been serving as trustees. This has given us as Erongo Marine employees the opportunity to be involved in the economic activity of our company.
Kambongarera said “Dividends of just more than nine million Namibian Dollars have been paid through the Trust to all Erongo Marine permanent employees on an equal basis in 2018, 2019, 2020 and in February this year.”
According to Kambon-garera “as from 2022, permanent Namibian CCS employees with service of 12 months or longer will also be able to share in the profits of the company gained through your hard work. Dividends will be declared on an equal basis annually.”
“The Trust provides for direct ownership and economic empowerment of our workers through a 15% percentage shareholding in the Arechanab Fishing and Development Company, a quota holding company in which Erongo Marine is a shareholder”, Kambon-garera said.
Agnessa Feris, a CCS employee, expressed her gratitude to the com-pany and thanked them for this opportunity. “Aside from our salaries, we can now look forward to extra cash in our pockets to feed our families. There are some people who really struggle financially, so we are extremely grateful.
Feris also thanked the Namibian Ports Autho-rity (Namport) for ex-tending the lease for the next ten years to ensure that they still have jobs. “We are thankful for job security and to be