Ester Mbathera
The leader of the Affirmative Repositioning movement (AR), Job Amupanda, has questioned the credibility of the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), accusing the government of influencing and manipulating statistical data for political purposes.
In a statement released on social media on Monday, Amupanda claimed that the NSA had completed the Labour Force Survey and was prepared to release the findings but was halted after the NSA briefed the government.
“How can we trust even you guys that are in the Namibia Statistics Agency? How can you be used like that? How can you be used by politicians on important issues that affect the country? So tomorrow, when you release a statistic, how do we know that those statistics are not cooked at SWAPO headquarters? It’s such a shame that you can even do something like that,” he said.
Amupanda alleged that the NSA was prepared to release the Labour Force Survey, but after briefing the SWAPO-led government, the release was halted due to concerns about the findings.
“The report is ready. My sources have seen it. They were all ready to have this report released until they went to brief the SWAPO government. And the government discovers that the unemployment rate is so high. I can inform you now that unemployment has surpassed 50%,” he said.
Last week, the NSA announced that it would only release the report on 29 January 2025.
Amupanda further claimed that the NSA has removed all sections related to unemployment in the Population and Housing Census report that will be released on 30 October.
“They have decided that that component must be removed from the report. It must be removed everywhere. Everyone has been sanitised in the NSA and has been told never to disclose this 50% that we are talking about,” said Amupanda.
He further claimed that certain sections of the report, such as the distance residents of the Karas and Kunene regions must travel to access health facilities, have been removed.
“SWAPO gave instructions that it must not be released and it can only be released next year after the election,” he said.
Amupanda raised concerns about the manipulation of statistical data for political reasons.
The NSA’s statistician-general and CEO, Alex Shimuafeni, refuted the claims by Amupanda.
“NSA does not get instructed what to publish or not,” he said.
Shimuafeni said that the Labour Force Thematic Report has not yet been published, and its figures will only be available once it is released impartially, as required by law.
Regarding the information on health facility access in the Karas and Kunene regions, Shimuafeni stated that the spatial analysis report is part of a series of thematic reports that will be published following the release of the Census Main Report.
“The Thematic Reports, together with the Regional Profiles, are comprehensive reports that will be released on dedicated dates, as the Census Main Report is also a lengthy report itself,” he said.
The thematic reports, according to the NSA, will be released in batches from 4 December to 13 March 2025.
The reports are on regional basics spatial analysis atlas, disability, fertility, regional profiles, mortality, migration, and agriculture statistics.
Swapo’s deputy-secretary, Uahekua Herunga said Amupanda should cool down and focus on his political campaign.
“Since when did the Swapo party direct the government agency on its affairs? That is pure lies and politically engineered accusations,” he said.
