By Kuvee Kangueehi Windhoek Swapo Party MP Jeremia Nambinga compared the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) chat show to defamatory letters written under the pseudonym “Nifitikego Ananias”. The former deputy Minister of Prisons made the remark on Wednesday evening in the National Assembly as Parliament debated the allocation budget for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He said the programme is destructive and something must be done to address the serious problem. Nambinga’s sentiments were shared by the Minister of Agriculture, Nicky Iyambo, that the programme does not serve its objective to educate and inform the nation about development issues. He suggested that the programme should introduce topics in which callers can participate and that callers who divert from the given subject should be cut off. Responding to the request, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, said the NBC top leadership had met and had decided to introduce topics in order to stop abuse by callers. She did not, however, give a specific date but said this would be implemented in the near future. Ndaitwah said NBC would not, however, be able to fully realize its goals, especially the improvement of quality programmes and the implementation of the long overdue salary increase of 9% following the allocation of a budget of N$62,6ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ million. Motivating the budget, she said the new allocation represents a decrease of N$200ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 on the budget of the previous year. Ndaitwah also noted that the NBC has an operational debt of N$35ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ million. Currently, N$7,4ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ million is being spent annually on interest alone to service the debt. She said that, in addition to the operational debt, the NBC has a long-term accumulated debt book of N$206ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ million. She noted that the revenue which rose from cost-saving measures, such as cutting down on broadcasting hours and closing some regional distribution centres, could not help much as they only made a small reduction in the Corporation’s operational deficit. On a positive note, however, Ndaitwah informed parliament that the Corporation managed to raise N$22ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ million from television licences, and the money was used to service the corporation’s historical debts. She informed fellow lawmakers that, because of its precarious financial position, the state broadcaster might not be able to screen updated programmes, movies, comedies and soapies. She said the corporation would soon be forced to rely on archive material, which no longer is subjected to copyright. It should not come as a surprise if one day NBC can no longer cover live events of national importance due to the high costs of such events. Ndaitwah said it cost the broadcaster over N$50ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 for the live coverage of the introduction of the 2007/08 budget. Regarding the New Era newspaper, many lawmakers congratulated the newspaper for its performance and noted that it has become an important competitive newspaper in the country. However, the deputy Minister of Labour, Peter Iilonga, criticized the newspaper saying he never features in the paper. Ndaitwah said the newspaper has established itself in the Namibian media sector as a daily publication that has to be reckoned with. She noted that the newspaper has increased its revenue by 56 percent from the 2005/06 financial year to the 2006/07 year. Ndaitwah said this could be attributed to the increase in popularity, appointment of a marketing manager and additional sales staff, and also an increase in the selling price of the newspaper. She boasted that the newspaper sales increased by 84 percent, while its advertising income increased by 52 percent in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 financial years. The minister further added that the New Era newspaper, under its joint venture with Zimpapers, continued to publish the Sunday newspaper, the Southern Times. She said the Southern Times was recapitalized on the basis of a four-year business plan running from the 2006/07 financial year to the 2009/2010 financial year. She highlighted that since the appointment of a General Manager seven months ago, the monthly revenues increased from N$12ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 to N$144ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 per month. She noted that the printing of the regional newspaper has been relocated from Zimbabwe to Namibia. She also informed fellow lawmakers that the Sunday paper has secured a contract with the SADC Parliamentary Forum to dedicate a page to their programmes in the region, and it also reached an agreement for the publication of a glossy quarterly newspaper with the Regional Electricity Regulators Association. The minister said some of the challenges facing the ministry include lack of accommodation. Ndaitwah said that for more than 10 years, the ministry has been scattered all over town, which makes proper control, coordination and management very difficult. She said the 2006/07 financial year was challenging after the Turnhalle Annex that housed two directories of the ministry was flooded. She claimed that the situation had forced directors to share offices with staff members in offices that were overcrowded. Ndaitwah highlighted that staff turnover at the ministry also remains a matter of serious concern. She said the ministry regularly appoints staff and puts them through in-house training and, once they have gained enough experience, they leave the public service for the private sector that offers double what they receive in the public sector. “It is almost impossible to attract senior media staff to join the ranks of the ministry.” She added that an amount of N$2ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ million has been budgeted for transport as it has been hampering some operations of the ministry. Ndaitwah concluded with a pledge that the ministry will strive to produce at least six copies of the Namibia Review per year, as well as other printed material, as the need arises, for information dissemination.