Farmers' unions in the Kavango East and West regions are not happy with the MeatCo Board's decision to dissolve its subsidiary, Meatco NCA.
Kavango East Regional Farmers Union Vice Chairperson Thomas Nyambe says the move disenfranchises farmers in the northern communal areas.
Meatco NCA was established to manage abattoirs in the northern regions as well as promote livestock marketing.
"MeatCo now is in the process of dissolving its MeatCo NCA subsidiary, the very approach that once convinced or gave the two unions as a vehicle through Meatco's operations and MeatCo run the abattoir at the NCAs. To date, farmers have started delivering cattle to the abattoir, but as unions, we don't know where MeatCo hired the workers that are working there," said Thomas Nyambe, the vice chairperson of the Kavango East Regional Farmers Union.
Meatco Chief Executive Officer Mwilima Mushokobanji would not comment on the decision to dissolve the entity as the decision was taken by the Board.
Board Chairperson Adolf Muremi attended the engagement but could not respond to the matter.
The farmers also demand that 80% of the abattoirs' workforce must be from the Kavango East and West regions.
Meatco NCA Chief Executive Officer Kingsley Kwenani assured the farmers that the majority of the workers will be from the regions as a strategy to benefit locals.
"The majority is made up of staff members that we were already using at the mobile slaughter, which we brought from there to here. The others are Kavango sons and daughters that were already working with the contractors on the site because we said that these are people who know the technical issues; we don't want to lose them, but as we are testing so that they can know, and it's been helpful, to be honest, when things break, they know where to go. And then the rest were some of Meatco's own employees that were retrenched again, Kavango sons and daughters."
Meatco, he said, will finalize the recruitment process once the abattoir has been handed over by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform.
Kwenani says the abattoir will require about 100 employees, 25 on a permanent basis and the rest on fixed-term contracts.