THE MINISTER of Labour and Social Welfare has threatened to take former board members of the Social Security Commission (SSC) to court if they refuse to pay back money they allegedly used to overcompensate themselves for sitting fees. In an interview on Monday Doreen Sioka said that her office would demand that board members pay back portions of the money, and failure to do so would result in her taking legal action against the board. Sioka stuck to her guns regarding the allegation that board members were either overcharging, or charging the commission sitting fees when they had not even met.
THE Namibia Labour Force Survey 2013 presented yesterday shows that the unemployment rate has increased by 2.2 percent while 41 percent of the youth remain unemployed. Statistician General John Steytler attributed the increase in unemployment to a lack of, or low qualifications that would allow people to find employment. “The jobs are there, but people are not qualified and the global economy was also a contributory factor to the increase in unemployment,” he said.
THE Minister of Trade and Industry, Calle Schlettwein says Namibia’s ‘dependency on imports’ places huge pressure on foreign currency reserves and the balance of payments. “We want to manufacture goods for domestic consumption and for exports, thereby reducing our dependency on imports, and increase our exports earnings,” he said on Tuesday during his motivation of his ministry’s budget for the financial year 2014/15 in parliament.
THE Meat Corporation of Namibia (Meatco) took a N$200 million loan from a local bank without the consent of the Agriculture Minister or the Minister of Finance as its enabling Act apparently requires. The matter was referred to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for investigation, but the commission concluded that the matter did not fall within its mandate.
OUTGOING Namibian Premier League Chairman Johnny Doeseb this week gave the nod for either Isack Hamata or Lucas Nanyemba as his preferred candidates to succeed him. He indicated this following his recent announcement in local daily The Namibian that he would step down as NPL chairman when his term ends on 31 July.