Andrew Kathindi
Employees’ suspensions and occurrences at the Namibian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) turned into a political storm on Friday 17 July after the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) weighed in, raising concerns about developments at the state owned enterprise.
This comes after videos on social media went viral showing a legal officer at the NCAA, Natalia Isak, being suspended, seemingly after raising concerns about irregularities at the government body tasked with regulating air traffic services in the country.
The alleged concerns raised by Isak include unfair and inconsistent salary grades, illegal recruitment processes, modern day slavery and exploitation of vulnerable staff, unethical actions of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and lack of checks and balances on the company’s CFO.
Isak also questioned the legality of the contract extension of the interim Executive Director, Reinhard Gartner, which she states had no ministerial approval.
In a statement issued on Friday, the SPYL called for the immediate reinstatement of the suspended three young black female employees.
“SPYL Recommends that the Ministry of Works and Transport, Anti-Corruption Commission, Office of the Ombudsman, Employment Equity Commission, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Gender and Equality and Child welfare to intervene and bring NCAA to order,” said SPYL Secretary Ephraim Nekongo.
He further noted that “SPYL strongly condemns the unlawful use of force in public by men and the harassment of women as shown in the video circulating on social media. We also condemn the continuing domination and intimidation of white monopoly in public enterprises.”
Former SPYL Secretary and Deputy Minister of Works, Veikko Nekundi told Windhoek Observer that the ministry is concerned by the allegations raised.
“Some of those allegations were already brought to the attention of board earlier and there was a clear direction from our side. The minister has taken note of the situation and has called for an urgent response from the board. We take this thing very seriously. We will ensure that the plight of the employees is respected.”
With regards to the employment of Gartner, Nekundi noted that the minister already pronounced himself on the matter.
As per a letter from Works Minister, John Mutorwa, dated 4 June 2020 to the NCAA “the alleged extension of the Interim Executive Director Reinhard Gartner is neither endorsed, nor approved by the MWT Minister. Thus, the MWT minister cannot and may not give his concurrence, at all, to the alleged extension of the IED: NCAA’s employment contract.”
“During the course of next week, the Minister will communicate on this issue. It has also disturbed him a lot, and it will be addressed,” Nekundi said.
