I think this is a wise move, at last a local person is the new GM! Congrats Riaan!
"It gives me great pleasure to announce that Riaan Burger has been appointed as Namdeb
General Manager effective 01 December 2011.
In July 2008 Namdeb welcomed a new General Manager, Mitford Mundell. He was
seconded to Namdeb to serve a three years term and in the process groom and mentor an
internal candidate to take over at his departure. The decision to find a replacement was
made in June and communicated to the Board at the end of July 2011.
The advert for the GM position was placed in the job finder publication on 12th October
2011. The HR department received 3 applications from internal candidates of which all were
shortlisted and interviewed on 30th October.
A representative panel consisting of 8 members including myself, Otto Shikongo from De
Beers Marine Namibia, Robert Smart from De Beers Global Mining, Vicky Do Cabo from the
Ministry of Mines and Energy, Veston Malango from the Chamber of Mines, Markus Lubbe
interviewed the candidates supported by Ophelia Netta.
Following all due processes which included psychometric assessment, a decision was made
by the Panel that Riaan Burger be offered the position of Namdeb GM. Riaan is a registered
professional engineer and an Executive MBA graduate from the University of Stellenbosch.
Riaan has been a dedicated member of the Namdeb team and I believe he is the right
person to take this business into the future successfully. Riaan will commence his term as
the new GM from 1st December 2011. Mitford will stay on as part of the hand over process
and will therefore remain onsite during this period.
Mitford will be de-seconded from Namdeb to take up a new position within the De Beers
Group early next year. In his new role, Mitford will continue to be available to Namdeb and
will visit Oranjemund from time to time.
During his tenure with Namdeb Mitford has been instrumental in championing a number of
transformational changes at the operations that included amongst other the
implementation of the Plan that secured Namdeb's survival during the 2008/2009 Global Financial Crisis. He was also instrumental in the development of vision 2050 that extended the closure of mine from 2011 to 2050 and optimized the Orebody. He joined Namdeb at a difficult time but has remained committed to reshaping Namdeb into a dynamic and an exciting company and has shown true leadership.
I would like you to join me in thanking Mitford for his invaluable contribution to Namdeb and wish him and his family all the best for the future. We will have a farewell function for him in due course where we will give him a truly Namibian farewell.
We are delighted to welcome Riaan into his new role as GM and trust that we will render our full support.
Yours sincerely
Inge Zaamwani-Kamwi
MANAGING DIRECTOR"