By Mathias Haufiku WINDHOEK – Statistician-General Dr John Steytler has resigned from the Namibia Statistics Agency and reasons for his resignation remain unclear, a source within the agency reliably informed this newspaper. The agency is expected to announce Steytler’s resignation at a press conference today. According to an invitation circulated to media outlets yesterday the press conference will be convened for the agency to announce its recently-decided management reshuffling. Steytler’s resignation further amplifies speculation that he is one of those whom President-elect Dr Hage Geingob is keeping a hawk’s eye on as he looks to select the eight people whom he would like to join the National Assembly as presidential appointees. Currently the chairperson of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), Steytler was appointed as statistician-general in 2012 when the National Planning Commission (NPC) decided NSA should replace the Bureau of Statistics to collect, process and coordinate the country’s official statistics. Steytler’s portfolio indicates he was a chief economist at Bank of Namibia (BoN) and served time at Bank Windhoek as its in-house economist. He also served in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry in the Directorate of Cooperative Development before joining the Ministry of Trade and Industry as chief economist. NSA’s Deputy Director of Data Quality Assurance Dr Isak Neema is one of those tipped to succeed Steytler. Before joining the NSA, Neema served as Head of Statistics and Population Studies at the University of Namibia. Sources however claim that it is unlikely that Neema would succeed Steytler having joined the NSA only this year. Neema is however highly regarded by Steytler, and at Neema’s appointment Steytler described Neema as someone “who will help raise the NSA to the next level in professionalism”. 2014-12-16Mathias Haufiku
