Kuzeeko Tjitemisa/Eveline De Klerk 

WINDHOEK/SWAKOPMUND – The management of cash-trapped Namibia Institute of Mining and Technology (Nimt) has threatened to close down the institution after registering a vote of no confidence in the board of trustees.

Executive Director Eckhart Mueller with 14 others in senior and middle management positions took this stand in a document seen by New Era.

In a letter, signed by 15 members of management, among them Mueller and his deputy Heimo Hellwig, addressed to the board of trustee chairperson Dr Gabi Schneider, the group accused the board of trustees of not safeguarding against “ongoing racial discrimination against specific management members”.  The group is also accusing the board of allegedly giving preference to minority groups at the institution.

The letter, dated 18 March, said Mueller and his senior team no longer have professional trust in the power and credibility of the board.

“For the reasons stated, Dr Gabi Schneider and board of trustee, we, the undersigned, voted ‘no confidence’ in board of trustees and hope that you, as our leaders, will take the right decisions and will choose what is in the best interest of the students, Nimt employees and management,” reads the letter. 

According to the letter: “There is no real efforts being made to increase our subsidy allocation annually, but on the contrary, we cut cost to the bone. Our monthly salary bill already is N$8.75 million, while the board tolerates that from April onwards, Nimt should survive on N$3.4 million.” 

However, employees at Nimt who spoke to New Era said many of the managers who signed the letter were mostly aged above 60 and are unhappy with the new employment policy draft document that requires anyone above 60 to retire.
At least 20 employees in management at Nimt are said to be 60 years and older and consume a bigger chunk of the struggling institution’s wage bill of N$8.7 million.