Windhoek
The Minister of Public Enterprises, Leon Jooste, says the ministry has instructed both TransNamib and Air Namibia boards to appoint a CEO not later than June 2017.
Jooste said this during a press conference held at the ministry’s head office in the capital yesterday.
TransNamib has been given until March next year while Air Namibia was given until June to find a suitable candidate.
For the last two years both parastatals have been operating without a CEO or managing director.
The vacant CEO position at TransNamib follows Sara Naanda’s suspension in 2014. Since then Hippy Tjivikua, the executive for strategy and stakeholder management, has been acting as CEO.
At Air Namibia, Ellaine Samson has been acting managing director since August last year. She took over from Rene Gsponer who acted in that position since the suspension of Theo Namases in June 2014.
Last year disgruntled employees of both parastatals took to the streets demanding appointments of more competent managers.
In a petition to Minister of Works and Transport Alpheus! Naruseb, employees of the two SOE’s expressed their dissatisfaction over the management at the companies, which they described as being incompetent.
“As workers and citizens of Namibia they are determined to contribute to the national goal of waging war against poverty. They said this can only be achieved if workers are led by qualified and competent managers,” said the group spokesperson Martin Nghidengwa who read the petition on behalf of the group.
“The only assistance we are requesting from you is to give us competent managers so that we can achieve success similar to other SOEs like Namibia Ports Authority (NamPort),” said Nghidengwa.
The group alleged that Air Namibia has experienced cases of mismanagement over the past few years and suspended managers who were not charged properly.
The group spokesperson alleged that in some cases suspended managers were re-employed despite allegedly lacking the capacity to perform.