MPs claim foreigners rule economy

WINDHOEK – Some members of parliament have complained that certain positions within some financial institutions, particularly banks, are occupied by non-Namibians and needs to be addressed with urgency.

Their complaint comes after the minister of labour, industrial relations and employment creation Erkki Nghimtina tabled a motion in the National Assembly (NA) last week for 14 members of the Employment Equity Commission (EEC) representing the state, employers, women and previously disadvantaged persons to be appointed.

The minister of information and communication technology (ICT) Tjekero Tweya said he personally knows of Namibians who have been working in banks for more than 25 years but are nowhere in management positions there.

“Certain departments in these institutions are only occupied by non-Namibians. I am not so much worried about the ownership issue but the management, the decision making is of concern,” Tweya said.

There is a need, he said, for decisions taken in the country to be in the interest of Namibians and the country’s economic development.

“If these commissioners (EEC) do not perform, replace them with Namibians that want to work. We want results, we want to grow the economy,” he said.

Deputy minister of finance, Natangwe Ithete said the EEC was doing its best but the EEC Act of 1998 is hampering efforts.

“When companies do not comply, the same Act gives power to the EEC to fine those companies. In the end, these companies do not feel threatened by this fine because when they do not comply, they are asked to pay and they pay,” Ithete said.

He proposed that the Act be amended in such a way that either a chief executive officer or director of a defaulting company be sent to jail if they do not comply with the laws of the country.

DTA of Namibia president McHenry Venaani said a worrisome trend is that the compositions of institutions’, such as Agra, do not reflect the previously disadvantaged Namibians by representation, regardless of the money invested by these people.

“Their management does not reflect the diversity that Namibia as a country finds itself in. The EEC should really do its job to make sure that we broaden representation,” he said.

On his part, All People’s Party (APP) president Ignatius Shixwameni called on the Employment Equity Commissioner, Vilbard Usiku through the minister of labour to crack his whip, adding that reports of the EEC go in and out of parliament, yet many Namibians remain disadvantaged.

“We are supposed to be masters of our own destiny but look at what is happening in the economic sector: it is dominated by non-Namibians in top positions. That situation should end,” he charged.

Shixwameni said the EEC members should now go out there and make sure that Namibians occupy the highest positions. “This is not Europe. So we must make sure that Namibia’s economy is owned by Namibians and not by foreigners,” Shixwameni said. – Nampa