The labour ministry issued a statement late last week confirming that payments to security service providers are up-to-date. The Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation (MLIREC) stated this is contrary to a New Era report that it delayed payments, but at the same time admitted a slight delay with the January 2021 payment “due to invoice verification”.

The Namibia Security Guards and Watchmen’s Union (NASGWU) in an article titled “Security union decries ‘late’ payments”, published in New Era on 4 March 2021, claimed the labour ministry was among other government ministries continuously making delayed payments. 

“This is totally inaccurate. It should also be made known that NASGWU is one of the defaulting trade unions for many years hence unaccountable to their members and acting contrary to their registration obligations. Such allegations made by the NASGWU are unfounded and irrational. It appears that such claims were made by the union without first establishing facts. The ministry had an outstanding invoice as stated above for a certain security company that has already been settled at this stage. However, the delay emanated from an unexplained pay rate per hour that is not in line with the tender as awarded to that company in question,” read a statement from labour ministry executive director, Bro-Matthew Shinguadja.  

The ED added that the ministry regularly honours its financial obligations to its service providers including those in the security industry, emphasising that all invoices for the security service providers have been settled, except for service rendered in February 2021, which he said is currently being processed. Shinguadja continued that an SMS in The Namibian, also on 4 March 2021, claimed that security guards in Tsumkwe have not been paid for three months. “This ministry would like to set the record straight that it does not have an office in Tsumkwe. The author of the SMS is therefore advised to directly contact the ministry to provide factual information so that the ministry makes possible investigations if needed,” said Shinguadja. He further advised the public to first verify with the ministry if payments to service providers have been made or not.