Go Canucks,
We received the following reply from AFA management:
“I understand your concern but there is some facts that are very important to understand. The work permit is also an entry visa for the country and serves to enter diamond area # 1, which is the most restricted area of the country. No one can go on a mining vessels without being approved by the Police of Namibia who controls the entrance of mining vessels. To be approved to enter the mining vessel, one needs to have a valid work permit.
As far as what is marketed by the Home affairs, I can only confirm that it is probably the case for many industries but it has never been the case for the diamond mining business, which is a strategic sector and the police of Namibia is highly involved to prevent theft and lost of royalties for the country. In the diamond business, the issuance of work permits is normally 2 to 3 weeks and I have seen many cases that have took up to 6 weeks. The reason for unclear delay is that all the permits have to be approvde by an independent committee that meets once a week. This committee has to make sure that companies are not trying to get cheap labour in the country and replacing Namibians in the work force. In our case, we are asking permits for specialists that we cannot find in the country. It will be approved without any doubt. At some period of the years the Ministry has more application than usual and it is slowing down the procedure. When these permits are issued once they are easy to renew but the first application is more demanding in documentation to provide.
There is no corruption case in this matter. In fact, corruption would be that we bribe someone to speed up the procedure, situation that we would never do. There is a system and we will adhere to it even if it is sometime frustrating.
As mentioned above, we understand your concerns but our main task is to start the sampling program well organized in order to be efficient and deliver strong results and we are finally arrived to that point.
Have a nice week end.”
Regards,
AGORACOM
