About 60 Namibian employees at a Chinese-owned company, JTD Mining Group, near Arandis, will no longer share one toilet while on duty.

To get rid of overcrowding, the employer has further decided to build more sleeping rooms for the workers, following the Erongo Governors' intervention in the matter.

A month has passed since the Erongo Governor Neville Andre and other stakeholders, shut down a Chinese-owned company, JTD Mining Group near Arandis.

The company was forced to close as it contravened several labour laws and was given one month to change the conditions.

It was discovered that the company provided one joined toilet and shower for about 60 Namibian employees who live on-site, while the 10 Chinese employees had access to two modern toilets, a shower and a washing machine.

More than 18 Namibian workers had to share one sleeping room with poor ventilation while their Chinese counterparts had better bedrooms.

JTD Mining Group's Health and Safety Officer, Ladislaus Makeva said after the first meeting we had, it was agreed with our management and everyone was sent back home for us to improve the standards, there is a contractor that is building some new rooms.

The new construction will include five toilets and four showers to ease the living conditions while the number of people in each of the new rooms will be reduced to four.

An investigation revealed that the Chinese company also failed to provide protective clothing to employees while there was never an investigation to identify hazards attached to the work.

"We are satisfied so far with the progress, we just want you to continue working, at the end, we want to ensure that people that are coming here are happy and also you yourself are happy. The colleagues from the ministry will continue to come here to monitor the progress," said Erongo Governor, Neville Andre. 

The employees who were not allowed to join a union before, have now been recruited by the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union.

The company informed the governor that it will begin with negotiations for wages and benefits soon.  

Construction of the accommodation and ablution blocks are expected to end in the second week of December.