NBC staff call on Thieme to receive petition

WINDHOEK, 08 JUN  – Disgruntled employees of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) rejected giving their petition to the entity’s board member Andrew Kanime on Friday, saying they had been taken for a ride.
Instead, the employees want NBC board chairperson, Sven Thieme, who is currently out of the country to be the recipient of their petition.
This comes a day after the employees declined to hand over the petition to the NBC management, saying their matter warranted someone of “higher authority”, preferably a board member.
However, when a board member was available in the form of Kanime on Friday, the employees reneged on that stance.
This was revealed in a letter dated 08 June 2018 directed to NBC’s director general, Stanley Similo by the Namibia Public Workers Union (NAPWU).
“The staff are requesting the chairperson of the board to be available to receive the petition on 13 June between 13h00 and 14h00,” reads the letter from NAPWU’s secretary general, Petrus Nevonga.
Nevonga continued: “We thus humbly request Chairperson of the Board, Sven Thieme to be the receiver of this petition or (to) delegate the board of directors.”
Should this not happen, the employees threatened to demonstrate every day during the lunch hour at all NBC national offices until their demand is met.
NBC workers’ union representative, Toucy Tjijombo told Nampa on Thursday that the board had sufficient time, including Thursday to receive their petition, but “undermined” them.
It was, however, only after the employees took to the streets to air their frustrations and threatened to down tools that the board was finally willing to meet them.
“We were dancing to their tune. It is their turn to dance to our tune. They undermined us,” said Kephas Hembapu, another union representative when approached by Nampa.
Tjijombo added that they could also not give the petition as the majority of NBC employees were out of town.
“Our netball and soccer teams are in Swakopund for the corporate event,” she said.
On Thursday, over 100 employees of the national broadcaster took to the street in petition over unpaid overtime, outstanding salary increments and unsettled accrued arrears.
(NAMPA)