Career Commitment: – working a lifetime for one employer only
Rössing Uranium’s longest serving employee, Solly Thomas, has just been awarded for his 45 years unstinting dedication to his company. Joining him at an illustrious ceremony, were five other Rössing employees , all having served between 30 and 40 years.
In total, eleven employees with a combined 415 years service received awards at the mine’s annual long service awards ceremony.
Upon receiving his award, Solly told the audience how he slowly built a career that started in 1977. One of the biggest benefits of long service to the employer, is the vast institutional and operational knowledge that such employees build up. It is the long serving employees that the less-experienced employees look to for answers when they have questions on how to be successful at Rössing.
Managing Director, Johan Coetzee said: “At Rössing, our employees are pivotal to our business. As such, the long service awards are a clear testimony of the success of our human resources work, specifically employee retention. The fact that some of you have been here for such a long time is truly remarkable. Without your guidance, mentoring and knowledge share, Rössing would not have been able to continue boasting a skilled, motivated and capable workforce – being the aspiring Employer of Choice.”
Another long-serving employee, Viktor Gonteb with 30-years, said he started as an operator and continued working on his training. Today he is an electrical foreman. “When the opportunity to go for training came up, I took it. I joined NIMT in my late 20s and later furthered my studies and today, I’m a foreman,” he said.
Underlining the important contribution from long-serving employees, Coetzee added, “It is from you that we all learn about what has and what hasn’t worked at the mine before, and why. It is through you that we have a stable platform to build a better Rössing for those who come after you. I urge you to continue to serve as ambassadors to our external stakeholders and as an example to all other employees at the mine.”
General Manager Operations, Martin Tjipita delivered the vote of thanks with due recognition to the partners and families. To the younger generation, Tipita’s advice is “tap into the knowledge of the long-serving employees because there is no book in the library from which you can get that valuable knowledge.”
Rössing Uranium’s longest serving employee, Solly Thomas (third from left) with colleagues Shaun Peters (left), Pieter Wiese (second from left), Moses Muelihanyeka (third from right), Andrew de Koker (second from right) and Viktor Gonteb (right). Seated is the Rössing Uranium Managing Director, Johan Coetzee.
