Amutse sued over cement merger

A South African company is suing minister of industries, mines and energy Modestus Amutse over his decision to allow a Chinese company to buy Ohorongo Cement.

The High Court is set to hear the Gauteng-based company iTe Products’ argument that Amutse made a mistake when he approved a merger between Whale Rock Cement, which owns the brand Cheetah Cement, and Schwenk Namibia, the majority owner of Ohorongo Cement, on 1 October.

In his announcement approving the sale, Amutse said he had received no objections to the merger.

“The determination [to allow the merger] was expressly premised on the assertion that no representations had been received. That assertion was objectively wrong,” iTe director Peter Funke says in an affidavit filed at the High Court.

iTe is a major customer of Ohorongo cement, and opposes combining Namibia’s two cement companies because it would create a monopoly and risk employment, Funke says.

Last year, the Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) blocked Whale Rock from buying Ohorongo for the same reasons.

“The proposed merger is a merger to monopoly. There were no concrete benefits that would outweigh the detrimental effects that will result from the implementation,” the NaCC said in its determination on 4 July 2025.

Whale Rock appealed against the NaCC’s decision, saying the merger is “not a monopoly, will not create a dominant position in the market, and will not have a negative impact on employment”.

Amutse on 27 February announced he would consider the appeal. Interested parties had 30 days to make submissions to the ministry.

He overturned the NaCC decision on 11 June, saying “concerns raised by the commission can be remedied by attaching appropriate conditions to the proposed merger”.

To protect workers, there should be no job losses and the Cheetah Cement plant should not be destroyed.

Amutse also said “interested parties were invited to make written submissions with regards to any matter to be be reviewed, but no representations were received to date”.

iTe Products, together with its partner company Pharoah Cement and the Construction Industries Federation of Namibia, is now suing Amutse, alleging that they did, in fact, submit an objection to the merger to the ministry.

The cement companies and construction industries federation are asking the court to set aside Amutse’s decision prohibit the merger.

Included among documents filed at the High Court is a document showing that the ministry received the objections on 25 March.

“A decision-maker cannot properly apply his mind while unaware of timeous submissions directed to every issue he has to decide. The omission [of Pharoah and iTe’s submission] meant the minister determined the review on an incomplete record,” Funke says in his affidavit.

“A decision taken on that false premise [of no submissions] was not a decision reached on the true facts and complete record,” he says.

Amutse has not responded to The Namibian’s requests for comment by time of going to print.

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