Stefanus Nashama
Former Air Namibia employees yesterday met with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources and Community Development in an effort to seek lawmakers’ intervention on the delay of payment of their severance packages.
The consultation meeting with the Parliament follows two petitions received from the disgruntled employees of the now-liquidated airline. The former employees are begging the committee to summon stakeholders to explain the delays in the payment of their severance packages.
According to the Former employees’ Representative, Renier Bougard, repeated attempts to seek an audience with stakeholders have not yielded any positive results. He said they have followed all procedures for more than two years to receive their severance package payments but there has been no help and they feel neglected as a result.
“We did not receive any tangible feedback concerning our petition for nearly seven months, nor did we attend any hearing. We have only received part of our severance package and not the full amount as stipulated in our claims that were signed under oath. We ask the Parliament to intervene so that we can resolve this matter urgently,” Bougard stressed.
He stressed that the Minister of Finance and Public Enterprises, Iipumbu Shiimi said his office doors are open but their numerous calls to his office seeking an appointment have been met with a plethora of excuses.
“We request an urgent engagement with the Minister’s office. We want the liquidators of Air Namibia to be summoned as well as other stakeholders such as the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority(NAMFISA), Ministry of Justice and Master of the High Court, and the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRa),” Bougard said.
The petitioners also made it known that they are also unhappy that Parliament has not urgently looked at their plight despite receiving the initial petition which implored lawmakers to intervene because they had no other means of earning a living.
According to Bougard, the second petition was a follow-up of the first one submitted on 22 November 2022.
He said that due to the slow pace of bureaucracy, the former employees have no choice but to stage a peaceful demonstration to raise awareness about the injustice they have endured from the authority entrusted to serve the nation.
Among a host of issues the former employees intend to discuss are tax exemptions on their severance packages and a request for a 30 percent interest, reasoning that payment delays of more than two years have adversely affected them financially.
The Chairperson of the Committee, Nono Katjingisua, explained that delays in dealing with the matter of the former employees of Air Namibia were not intentional and that petitions received by the Parliament go through a process before they are submitted to the relevant committee for further action.
Air Namibia was formally liquidated in 2021 after the government, the sole shareholder, decided it could no longer sustain the airline and its outstanding debt of more than N$3 billion.
More than 600 employees were negatively affected by the airline’s eventual liquidation.
