MY JOURNEY AT SWAKOP URANIUM€¦ · my journey at swakop uranium petrus auala received a bursary from swakop uranium in 2013 to study at the university of namibia and that is pretty

HUSABNEWS

MARCH 2019 NEWS FOR THE PEOPLE

OF SWAKOP URANIUM

PETRUS AUALA

MY JOURNEYAT SWAKOP URANIUM

PETRUS AUALA RECEIVED A BURSARY FROM SWAKOP

URANIUM IN 2013 TO STUDY AT THE UNIVERSITY

OF NAMIBIA AND THAT IS PRETTY MUCH HOW HIS

JOURNEY HERE STARTED. EVERY HOLIDAY HE WOULD

COME WORK AS AN INTERN BACK AT KRAAL STREET;

SWAKOPMUND.

After graduating in 2014, he joined the

Company as a Training Engineer and

later in 2015 was part of the first Pool

of Graduates after the Company kicked

off its Graduate Program. He started working at the

Mining Maintenance Section under the Engineering &

Maintenance Department he recalls that at the time the

aim was to familiarize himself with the environment and

the equipment.

Petrus’s next stop under the SU Graduate Program was

Engineering Projects with Bertus Boshoff and says it

was one of the Sections he enjoyed the most, his most

interesting there was modifying the FPR Change houses

in collaboration with HPJV, he also enjoyed supervising

small contractors during his time at Projects.

After Projects, Petrus went on to Engineering Reliability

under the leadership of Volker Reddig and was Bertus

Steyn’s understudy:

At the Engineering Reliability – The team puts up systems

and strategies to ensure equipment availability for

production

HIS VIEW ON THE SU GRADUATE PROGRAM

When we started there was no structure/framework on

how things should be done, so for some people it worked

well and for others it did not but for me, it worked well,

I was fortunate because the guys I worked with gave me

exactly what I needed as a setup for my career, I would say

the Graduate Programs works very well if you are a driven

individual. Everything you learn at SU is almost 5 times

bigger so you can expect to learn a lot from the operation

which will benefit you in the long run. No one can take

away the knowledge you get from the Husab Mine.

Coming from the Graduate Program, I would suggest

that OD & Training put together a Framework with clear

guidelines to sort of direct us into the specialization fields

of choice and consider pairing Training with External

Training as well, Improving the remuneration will also be

a good motivation because when we come from University

we have high ambitions but when you get here it doesn’t

really go down well and it may lead to frustration when

seeing what other graduates are getting elsewhere.

SWAKOP URANIUM THROUGH HIS LENS

As much as we have manifested that we want to be World-

class over the years we have not really worked at achieving

as beautifully as we have said it. We need to work together

to realize the dream it’s about time, we the resources.

I see a lot of opportunity at SU, I have previously aced in

the position of Reliability Engineer and 9 people reporting

to me.

Not so good side – You get Newly recruited Senior

Engineers that end up learning from us, one can’t help but

think to yourself why can the Company not just empower

its own people, of course, the opportunity can be given to

you but the remuneration must also match the promotion

because when you get guys from outside the remuneration

matches the job but that doesn’t happen for us on the

inside.

QUICK QUIZ

Home town: I am from the Village – Onyaanya

Alma mater: Onyaanya Primary School, Uukule

Secondary School, Gabriel Taapopi Secondary School,

UNAM: Jose Eduardo Campus

Enjoys: Traveling, taking walks, watching football,

playing golf

Favorite Football Team: Manchester United

Bachelor or? Still a Bachelor and in no rush, he has a

dog with the name of Fury (name inspired by a m

HUSAB NEWS | MARCH 2019NEWS FOR THE PEOPLE OF SWAKOP URANIUM

RECOGNITION

Q1 EVENT – REVISITING OUR OBJECTIVES AND RECOGNIZING GOOD WORKLike many of us, one would recall that the Company in 2018 introduced the CI Incentive Scheme, which’s Purpose & Scope applies to the Business Improvement Culture Campaign initiated by SU Management, with an aim to amongst others, provide an equal opportunity to all employees for constructive thinking; To enhance employees’ ownership of the Mine through participation, to identify workers for CGN/URC Outstanding Performance Awards and other related competitions etc. The Company in 2019 decided to combine the CI Incentive Scheme Ceremony and MANCO Meeting and have it on a Quarterly basis. Dubbed the Q1

Event the first of these quarterly events was held on the 5th of April 2019. The Best Safety Improvement Idea Category winners included the likes of; Lukius Shilongo from PPD, Zedric Tom and Renier Eiman both from PRO, The Best Cost Improvement Idea winner’s line-up included regular CIIS Winner, Riaan Kotze (PRO), Timothy Nghishekwa (MMD), Elvis Murangi (MIN), Norman Plaatjie, Nqobizitha Mathuthu, Samuel Mbumba (PRO). The Exceptional Team Award was awarded to the Blast Misfire Recovery Team, while the Exceptional Individual Award went to Jason Shithigona from PPD as well as Shane Kubersky from MRM– The Special Management went to Gerasmus Njembo from MMD.

LONG SERVICE AWARDSOn the same occasion, SU honored its Long Serving Employees during the Q1 Event of the Company – A collaboration of the Continuous Improvement Scheme Ceremony and the MANCO Meeting. A total of 100 Employees were honored with Long Service Certificates that comes with a once off amount of N$4000 for employees serving the Company for 5 years and N$10000 for employees serving the Company for 10 years. We would like to congratulate all employees who received awards during the Q1 Event- may this be a motivation to continue with the good work thus far, for you are the people who the rest of the team look up to and aspire to be.

SPOTLIGHT

He has contributed immensely to the production of uranium as his experience over the years has been vital to his team. He expresses quality in all tasks assigned to him and has been an exemplary individual as most individuals on the team tend to ask for advice in day to day task before they ask same from seniors.

The 48-year-old is so passionate about his career choice as an operator in the processing department that it has given him a virtue in life and has also enhanced his knowledge of mining theories. Justus is thankful to Swakop Uranium for granting him the opportunity to work as a Milling Operator as this is something totally new to him which is an exciting challenge to him.

When asked why quality in what he does is so important? He said it is important because a lot of decisions are made from his duties and a lack of quality on his side could affect other integrated areas referring to an example, that when one is required to submit a composite sample to the laboratory at pre-determined time slots one has to do as requested to the best of your abilities as results from the laboratory are used to make decisions by

metallurgists. Justus is known to be an individual that does not require supervision in tasks allocated to him as he has proven maturity in completing timeous work assignments as required from him as a Milling Operator.

He dreams of becoming an Operation supervisor one day in order to transfer the knowledge he has gained over the years, though at the moment it seems like a distant dream due to the educational requirement by SU he cannot apply for vacant senior or supervisor positions but he is hopeful that he will accomplish his dream because the CEO is making positive changes and providing development opportunities for all.

His advice to others is learning to love what you doing than the rest will fall in place, don’t place too much importance on things like merits, and recognition just love what you do first and the workplace will become loveable.

He says though he knows a lot about processing as a department one learns every day and is eager to extend his knowledge in the IS/SX section as it is of major interest to him. Justus is motivated on a daily basis by the company values and morals especially the 4D’s


EXEMPLARY INDIVIDUALThis is Justus Uazakuani a Processing Milling

Operator in the Communition Section of the mine

who is very passionate about what he does. He has

been in the mining industry for about 19 years.

Justus started his mining career as an Operator

in 2002 at Namdeb he joined Swakop Uranium in

2015.

FEATURE


PAYROLL FAQ’S1. PLEASE EXPLAIN A NORMAL DAY IN A PAYROLL OFFICER’S LIFE:Let’s start off with a general observation and question from fellow employees. They always ask why Payroll officers are working longer hours than needed and over weekends. At Payroll, we are dependent on the output of others, but within limited time constraints. To ensure salaries are paid on time we had to set Payroll cut-off times and even query hour times.

Apart from all our efforts to control our timelines, we still find that documents due for processing are received late, incomplete, incorrect resulting in Payroll having to revert back to the originators to engage and ensure proper documents are submitted for processing. Upon receipt, we need to again review the documents to ensure accuracy before processing can take place. Apart from the above, we receive daily walk-in employees with Payroll queries and on top of walk-in employees, we need to attend to email and telephonic enquiries for both internal and external customers.

2. WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES AN OFFICER FACES?Zero adherence to our Payroll query hours, Payroll cut-off dates, late submission of Payroll Input documents, incomplete documents provided and incorrect timesheets submitted. Also employees who continuously request pay slips even though we dedicate time to ensure that we distribute on a monthly basis.

3. PLEASE EXPLAIN THE SALARY STRUCTURE, HOW YOU CALCULATE YOUR SALARY:If you have structured your Salary, then your Base Salary will be comprised by the following:• Basic • Housing Allowance • Car Allowance

You will then add any Fixed earnings you receive on a Monthly basis:• Housing Benefit

The Company also makes Contributions to the following Organizations:• Social Security Commission • Medical Aid (NHP/NMC)• Provident Fund

If you add all these amounts together it will be your Total Cost for the month.

4.PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW YOU WORK OUT UNPAID LEAVE:First and foremost, Unpaid leave is not an entitlement. As per the SU Leave procedure, Unpaid leave is at the discretion of the Company and approved by CEO. Where however, no application is made and an employee exceeds normal leave, the Unpaid leave principle will apply.

Unpaid leave is calculated on Total Cost per month. This means that your Fixed earnings and Company Contributions are taken into account to the determine the amount due to the Company. The number of actual working days for the month is used to calculate the Unpaid leave to be subtracted.

Example: 5-day worker (4 Unpaid leave days in April 2019)Actual Working days = 22 days N$Basic 9 000.00Housing Benefit 3 000.00Social Security ER 81.00Medical Aid ER 1 217.40Provident Fund ER 900.00Total Cost to Company 14 198.40

Unpaid leave calculation:Total Cost to Company N$14 198.40 / 22 working days= N$645.38 X 4 unpaid leave days= N$2 581.53

FEATURE

HUSAB NEWS | MACRH 2019NEWS FOR THE PEOPLE OF SWAKOP URANIUM

5. WHAT ARE THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS YOU RECEIVE ON A DAILY BASIS?• Please print my Pay slip• Please provide me with my Tax Certificate• How should I complete my Timesheet?• Please do my Leave recon• How can I structure Housing or Car Allowance?• What do I need to do to structure Holiday Leave

Allowance (HLA) and is it taxed?• Why is my Acting not paid out?• Please explain my Pay slip• What is the waiting period for my dependents

when I add them to my Medical Aid• Can you add an extra zero to my Salary please

6. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO SHARE WITH THE COLLEAGUES THAT YOU THINK THEY NEED TO KNOW?We are only 4 Payroll Officers and need to manage a workload of 1600 employees, but we do our best to attend to everyone as soon as we can. We humbly ask the employees to be patient when requesting information and requiring feedback of a Payroll query. We have Internal processes to follow to ensure that Salaries are paid on time every month, which we also need to attend to on a daily basis. In March 2019, we managed in a short notice period, to sort out salary increases, housing benefit increase and back pay for January and February 2019 and paid the employees on time, which we are really proud of.

FEATURE


ENVIRONMENTAL REUSABLE CARRIER BAG CAMPAIGN 04 – 08 MARCH 2019‘AWAY WITH PLASTIC BAGS, HUSAB SUPPORTS REUSABLE CARRIER BAGS’

Following a very successful Environmental Campaign regarding reusable water bottles in Quarter 4 of last year, the Environmental Section kicked off the Reusable Carrier Bag Campaign in the first week of March 2019.

FEATURE


The drive for this campaign is in light of the continued worrying state of our ecosystems globally, as a result of the detriment of plastic waste and pollution. Additionally, in April 2017 the Namibian Government (Ministry of Environment and Tourism) amended sub-regulation 9A of the Nature Conservation Ordinance (No.4 of 1975) for the ban of plastic carrier bags in all National Parks within Namibia.

This effects the Husab Mine as we operate in the Namib Naukluft National Park; therefore, there is a need to raise awareness and provide employees with alternative solutions. So came the birth of the issuing of the hessian reusable bag, with a multi-purpose Ziploc bag inside, that can be used on the mine as an alternative to single use carrier bags.

With 1473 reusable bags to issue and to cover all the different SU shifts and Departments, the Environmental Section and associated volunteers, were eager to get started come the Monday of the campaign. In order to receive the bags, employees had to complete a questionnaire regarding plastic related questions and hand in a piece of litter. The first day was well received with all dedicated bags for that day handed out.

This was a great start to this very important campaign! Overall the campaign steadied down and come Friday, the Contractors could partake and were overjoyed as they came in their numbers. Very interesting discussions were held during the week with the various employees and the campaign made a definite educational difference.

We were also overjoyed to observe employees still making use of their issued 2015 issued bags. With just over 100 bags currently still available in our offices, the Environmental Section would like to encourage employees that were not able to partake during the campaign week to make a turn at Block A. Thank you for all that supported the campaign and we look forward to rolling out the next one! To the noted Environmental Custodians – watch this space…

FEATURE


MEET HUSAB’S RECRUITER FROM OKALONGO-SELMA NDAPANDA MHANDAThe first day I met Selma was back in September 2016 when

she was helping me with some sign-on documents at the then

Recruitment Office at the Husab Tower, she greeted me like we

had known each other for years. I quickly came to learn that, that

is just the person Selma is, Welcoming, kind and has a unique

laugh that can be heard from Mr. McCullum’s office at the Tower.

She was surprised when the Husab News gave her call to feature

her in this month’s issue – me, really? Oh come on – you are not

serious she exclaimed.

FEATURE


Growing up in Okalongo, in the Omusati Region of Namibia – “the village girl” as she calls herself, attended primary school at Oshaalwata Combined School and completed her secondary school education at Oshakati Senior Secondary School going on to complete a Bachelor’s Degree with specialization in Human Resources Management at the Polytechnic of Namibia (now NUST).

The Husab News sat down with Ndapanda to get some insight on what exactly she does in her capacity as Recruitment Officer for Swakop Uranium, her future plans etc. Read on to see what we discovered about one of the first persons you likely met at SU.

What exactly does a Recruitment Officer do?Recruitment Officers understand a company’s recruitment needs and the Organizational culture. Being able to match a candidate with a position begins with understanding a company’s hiring needs.

Recruitment Officers establish recruiting requirements by studying the organization’s mission, value and objectives. We have regular meetings with EUDs to discuss departmental needs. We actively source, build and maintain a network of qualified and diverse candidates by placing adverts on platforms. We review and evaluate all applications to select the most suitable candidates.

We coordinate the interview process which includes finding interview times that works for everyone (Panel and candidates), conduct candidate credit, criminal and reference checks to validate employment history, update and maintain candidate’s information in a timely and consistent manner, negotiate, facilitate and support acceptance of Offers. Onboard new employees and facilitate probation periods.

What qualities do you look for in candidates when recruiting?

Apart from aligning candidate qualities with the company’s value (STARIC), I look at a lot of characteristics when hiring.• Positive attitude• Goal-oriented• Flexibility• Dependability• Creativity• Emotional Intelligence

What was your most exciting project at SU to date?I have been assigned quite a lot of projects so far, but the most exciting project I would say is the recent Job Attachment project. I felt honored to drive this project as part of the social responsibility towards the benefits of the students. SU is providing practical experience to students and that enables them to put everything they have learned into the practical frame. They are gaining skills that can be applied to future jobs. This will assist student’s career development.

You recently recruited 64 Job Attachments that was quite an accomplishment. Can you tell us about that project?Recruitment recently took over the responsibility of Job Attachments from OD. I got direction and guidelines from OD on the process. I worked with a great team (OD &EUDs) and I am very grateful of the full support they gave me. Together we pulled off the project I can’t take the credit alone. All involved sections and departments contributed to the success of this project. Job attachment is now my full responsibility and I will maintain the good relationship that OD has built with NIMT and other Vocational Academic Institutions.

Recruitment is the point of entry in any given company that means you have met almost everyone here right? Give us your top 3 most interesting people you have met so far and what made them so interesting, well not to say the rest are not.

SU is a diverse employer. Having met people from different backgrounds/different walks of life, there are always outstanding characteristics in certain people. Interesting, in HR/Psychology means character traits of people and Personality type. Some characters I came across so far

Lydia Joel (Reserved and results driven): She is very hard working, determined, strong, smart, consistent, kind and most of all she is a Loyal person.

Cecilia de Klerk (Conscientiousness): Never a dull moment with her. She is very open, jolly and a joke cracker but most importantly well organised.

Itaveleni Joey Mupewa (Extrovert): Joey speaks highly of his career and he is very proud to be an Environmentalist.

If you were not in HR what would you be?Computer Programmer

5 years from now, what would you want to be doing?Climbing the ladder. I see myself in a mid-management position (HR Superintendent)

Describe your perfect holiday?OMG, its scheduled for September 2019, we going to Thailand

If you were invisible for one day what would you do besides robbing the bank?Rob all the banks, let’s not argue on this one please

Describe your greatest accomplishment at SU to dateMoving my way up from HR Assistant, to Junior Officer now a Recruitment Officer. I joined SU with only 1 year Job attachment experience and growing this far is an achievement. That’s an accomplishment on its own

TEAM WORK


The Husab Conveyer Belt experienced a technical glitch on Sunday, 31st March 2019 after which all action on the 3km Conveyer came to a halt-

prompting OPS to mobilize all Teams on site during that time to manually remove the ore bearing rocks as it was the only available solution to remove the rocks to further investigate the problem.

TEAM WORK WAS THE BEST CONTINGENCY PLANA Two-fold process was followed were rocks removal by hands across the identified areas on the conveyor (About 40 Chinese colleagues, including SU employees from Comminution and other sections, WCC, some employees from mining were all involved) This was followed by Shoveling-off the material from the belt (WCC, Shifts brought in early, and some stayed on to help) four teams were used for

shoveling approximately 1.8kms of conveyor length. We would like to extended a hearty thank you to each and every one that was involved in the process. The excellent team work demonstrated when it matters most is reminiscent of our basic principles – Diligent, Disciplined, Dedicated, Developed.

IMPACT ON OPERATIONSThe Conveyor offloading including repairs is expected to take about 2.5 days at a cost of NAD 25,000 (Conveyor maintenance contract is in place between SU and CRC). The severity of the issue was masked by the plant stoppage due to no water. Contingency plans would usually include pulling stockpile inventory down (Currently have 43% worth of material), Stockpile excavation to keep the mills running (enough for 3 days run time but not continuous but due to no water, the PRO Management decided to move the planned shut for Wednesday forward to Tuesday. This will lessen the impact.

HUSABCONVEYER DEFAULTS

NUMBERS IN PERSPECTIVE


TOTAL REVENUE GENERATED FROM PRODUCTS SALES:No shipments have been dispatched year-to-date due to availability of suitable vessels. 3 Shipment estimated to depart 1st week in April 2019 from Walvis Bay harbor.

TOTAL CASH INFLOW FROM SHAREHOLDER’S SUPPORTED LOANS YEAR-TO-DATE:Total amount of US$100 million was loaned during 1st quarter of 2019. These funds were utilized to finance operational cost as no cash inflow generated from product sales. The first cash inflow on sales is expected in June 2019.

TOTAL CASH OUTFLOW YEAR-TO-DATE:Payments to date (1 Jan2019 to 31 Mar 2019) amounted to N$1.475 billion.The major vendors also remain to be Namibian based, being Engen, Barloworld, NamPower, Namwater and Komatsu.

TOTAL TAX PAID TO NAMIBIAN GOVERNMENT FROM 2014 TO DATE:

FINANCE UPDATE YEAR-TO-DATE

OPS KPI STATS

TYPE OF TAX N$ (MILLION)

Withholding tax on INTEREST 363.14

Withholding tax on SERVICES 41.37

Withholding tax on ROYALTIES 1.35

PAYE 597.21

Custom Duties 37.30

Royalty tax 98.07

Export Duties 17.70

1 156.15

SAFETY

KPIMARCH 2019

VARIANCE (YTD)BUDGET ACTUAL VARIANCE

(month)

Lost Time Injuries 0 1 -100% 100%

Lost Time Injury Freuency Rate 0.51 0.71 -39% -

All Injuries Frequency Rate 15.00 15.68 -35% -

MINING

KPIMARCH 2019


(MONTH)

Total Tonnes Mined (“000 tons) 7,903 2,695 -66% -30%

Ore Tonnes Mined (“000 tons) 843 580 -31% 8%

Drilled Meters 98,997 67,862 -31% -26%

Shovel Availabilty 81% 84% 4% 81%

Haul Truck Availability 90% 75% -17% -78%

PROCESSING

KPIMARCH 2019


(MONTH)

Total Tonnes Milled (“000 tons) 862 648 -25% -22%

Throughput Rate (TPH) 1,720 1,767 3% -4%

Drummed Product (Tonnes) 427 280 -34% -7%

Drummed Product (Tonnes) 78% 79% 1% -5%

EDITOR’S NOTEWelcome to the third edition of the Husab News, our

monthly newsletter designed especially for our employees

who might normally not consider logging on to the SUP,

check the Notice Boards regularly or might not have access

to the Company-wide notices via email but still would like

to know what’s happening and when it’s happening in the

Company.

We aim to cut through the confusion and give you clear,

sensible and reliable information from experts that you

can trust.

We want it to be entertaining and informative, at times

contrary, but above all useful. Inside you’ll find a mixture

of news, features and regular columns on a wide range of

Company-related topics.

Anthea-Leigh Jantjies debunks some of those common

HR-Payroll FAQ’s, Angula Kalili gives us an OPS update,

While Cui Bin and Pulani from Finance provides us with

those very important KPI stats.

I hope you enjoy this third issue and do let us know if

there are any topics you’d like to see covered in the future.

Yours Faithfully,

Husab News Editorial

HUSABNEWS

MARCH 2019 NEWS FOR THE PEOPLE

OF SWAKOP URANIUM

Documents

MY JOURNEY AT SWAKOP URANIUM€¦ · my journey at swakop uranium petrus auala received a bursary from swakop uranium in 2013 to study at the university of namibia and that is pretty