Finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi urges TransNamib to address employee concerns and cooperate amid leadership disputes

Minister of finance and public enterprises Iipumbu Shiimi has directed TransNamib’s management, employees and their union to cooperate with each other.

This comes after some of the rail company’s workers petitioned against the reappointment of top executive Webster Gonzo.

The employees are accusing Gonzo of failing to address critical human resource issues, favouritism and negligence.
TransNamib has, however, cleared Gonzo of any wrongdoing, which the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers Union (Natau) is questioning.

“The lack of substantial reforms or meaningful improvements under his leadership has left employees deeply disappointed, and this decision is viewed as undermining the company’s progress and future growth,” Natau acting general secretary Narina Pollmann said in the petition.

She questioned the rationale behind Gonzo’s reappointment.

“And key senior personnel are resigning because of his presence in the department he leads currently,” she said.

Responding to the petition, Shiimi directed Natau to TransNamib’s initial response, dismissing the claims against Gonzo as “baseless”.

“All allegations against Mr Gonzo have always been explored and found to be baseless and without substance,” TransNamib wrote to the union.

The union accused Gonzo of preferential treatment of expatriates and irregular employment practices.

“Mr Gonzo took it upon himself to personally arrange long-term contracts, surpassing the two-year work permit with full benefits for Zimbabwean expatriates hired to refurbish locomotives, despite the lack of successful results,” it wrote.
Natau further alleges that these contracts bypass standard recruitment protocols and overlook the qualifications of local artisans.

TransNamib responded, saying these packages were given to Zimbabwean nationals after approval by all the executives and the board.

“The decision to recruit Zimbabwean [nationals] was made after TransNamib was once again in a serious situation of having a massive lack of fitters because of a historic lack of training and development in the country,” TransNamib said.

The rail parastatal has tried to source fitters from as far as India, Kenya, Botswana, Eswatini and South Africa.

“But due to several constraints, TransNamib could not afford them as they proved too expensive to bring to Namibia,” it said.

This is not the first time TransNamib has sourced Zimbabwean nationals as fitters.

“TransNamib management and board, therefore, decided to follow the route that had previously been followed at TransNamib by Mr Titus Haimbili when he was the chief executive around 2007/8 when the first group of Zimbabwean fitters were first recruited at TransNamib.

“The Zimbabwean fitters then and now were also available and accepted the offers from TransNamib without constraints,” it stated.

Natau says the parastatal has lost money due to several labour cases it has lost.

TransNamib said these cases are still in court.

“Legal costs within TransNamib are unfortunately unacceptably high due to ongoing and historic commercial and labour staff-related matters,” it said.

Natau further called out Gonzo for having employees serve in acting roles for over nine years.

This is against company policy which recommends confirmation after six months of acting, it says.

TransNamib said executives and the board have in the past decided to freeze posts.

“There is no longer an agreement between the board and management not to fill vacant positions to save costs,” the company said.

It said several positions would be permanently filled to address this issue.

“For example, three new engineers have already been appointed in October 2024,” it said.

Natau also revealed that TransNamib does not have a succession plan in place.

“Addressing succession planning for critical positions is top priority for the new chief executive.”

Shiimi told Natau to collaborate with TransNamib to solve the company’s problems.

“TransNamib is at a critical stage of transformation, which requires all key stakeholders to work together with the view to make it a better place to work, and to ensure it delivers on its core mandate as a contributor to a better Namibia,” he said.

TransNamib chief executive Desmond van Jaarsveld told the union the company has introduced performance agreements between himself, the board and TransNamib’s senior management.

“I will be reviewing and measuring these key performance indicators and performance, and corrective action will be taken with management to ensure top performance and accountability from every management member, including myself,” he wrote.

Van Jaarsveld told the general secretary to look past troubled relations with Gonzo and expressed the “importance” of rebuilding its relationship with management.

“While the sentiments expressed are unfortunate, I would like to once again reiterate the importance of new beginnings and rebuilding relationships for the benefit of the organisations,” he wrote to Pollmann.