The joint venture between Namibia’s United Africa (UA) group and Protea Hotels of South Africa would not result in retrenchments, the Group said on Thursday. Reacting to a query of PLUS Weekly, after receiving complaints from disgruntled staff members, who charged some hotel staff at the coast and another hotel are laid off, Brian Rubinstein, CEO of UA denied the allegations and implications that the Protea/United Africa joint venture had any thing to do with retrenchments. - " As the agreement with Protea kicks in on 1 April only, they have not had any chance to look at any United Africa units, and have had no input on our staffing levels", Rubinstein said in a written response to PLUS. "The agreement does not make mention of staffing levels nor has this been discussed with Protea". He added that "it is true that we are right sizing 2 of our hotels where our budgeting exercise for the new financial year identified staffing levels over and above what was required, and the correctives have been put into place in accordance with good management principals. The manager of Pelican Bay has not been retrenched nor has it been contemplated in any way. Graham Howard, who is currently group general manager: hospitality, is in Cape Town to discuss operational issues with Protea for the future success of this joint venture", Rubinstein noted.

The hotels Fürstenhof, Zum Sperrgebiet and Pandu Ondangwa are among those to be run under the under the joint venture.