WINDHOEK-Female chief executive officers all around the world are more at risk of being fired than their male counterparts, a 2013 PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report has concluded.
According to PWC’s 2013 Chief Executive Study titled “Women’s CEOs of the last 10 Years”, among CEOs leaving office over the past 10 years, a higher share of women have been forced out than men (38 percent of women vs 27 percent of men).
The report states that as much as one third of the incoming class of CEOs will be women by 2040, based on a 10 year trend in our data, ever higher education of women, continuing entry of women into the business workforce, and changing social norms of corporate leadership around the world.
Namibia’s female CEO’s have not been spared the rod in this regard, especially in the past few months where two of the country’s handful female CEO’s have been placed suspension and another almost muscled out of her jobs.
New Era looked at two females who made headlines in the country who were axed for reasons only known to the boards of those companies
Sara Naanda
Barely a year in the office as the CEO of the national railway entity TransNamib Holdings, Sara Naanda was last week sent home on full pay suspension.
The parastatals board announced Naanda has been suspended with full pay, pending finalisation of investigations into allegations of wrongdoing, inter alia, insubordination of board instructions.
Media reports indicate that the troubled parastatal hired a private firm to investigate allegations of misconduct against Naanda.
The Namibian reported a week ago that Naanda was given 24 hours notice to convince the board why it should not suspend her.
Theo Namases
Air Namibia’s first female Chief Executive Officer was axed in June this year. She is still on suspension.
Air Namibia’s Chief Operations Officer (COO), Rene Gsponer, a Swiss national, is acting as Managing Director until investigations are finalised.
It has also been alleged that the board intends to remove Namases from her position as managing director and that it aims to transfer full accountability of managing the national airline to Gsponer.
In the months leading up to her suspension, the airline has been embroiled in infighting with accusations of favouritism, autocracy and tribalism between Namases and the board, which is chaired by Harald Schmidt
The tense relationship between Namases and Schmidt resulted in letter being written to Prime Minister, Dr Hage Geingob, to intervene in the tussle.