NEWLY appointed chairperson of the Public Office-Bearers Commission, judge Sylvester Mainga says there will be no salary increments for politicians until the current economic situation improves.
Mainga and six other members of the commission paid a courtesy call on President Hage Geingob at State House yesterday.
The new members were appointed on 1 July 2018. The other members of the commission include Gordon Elliot, who is the deputy chairperson, Marc Nel, Johnnie Hamman, Milka Mungunda, Levinia Karises and Emma Haiyambo.
One of the mandates of the commission is to make recommendations to the President regarding the perks and salaries of public office-bearers.
Mainga said the purpose of their visit yesterday was to introduce themselves to the President, and to express their gratitude for their appointments.
"We just wanted to check with him [Geingob], given the financial position we find ourselves in. In the situation we find ourselves in, it will be difficult to make any recommendations for salary increments for all the office-bearers - for now," he stated.
He added that Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila is currently under pressure to cut the salary bill, which takes a huge chunk of the national budget.
New Era last year reported that total personnel expenditure and benefits for Namibia's 326 public office-bearers encompasses N$264,3 million, or 0,4% of the country's budget at the time. The last increase for politicians was in 2016 when Geingob agreed to give them a 6% salary increase, a few months after approving huge increases for their water and electricity bills.
Following the 6% increase, there was public outrage regarding how public office-bearers were still getting perks and increases in the face of the economic hardships the country faced. Public office-bearers, amongst others, include the President, founding President Sam Nujoma, former President Hifikepunye Pohamba, vice president, the Prime Minister, deputy prime minister, ministers, deputy ministers, special advisers, the director-general of the Namibia Central Intelligence Services, regional governors, members of regional councils, members of the National Assembly, members of the National Council and the attorney-general, etc.
Asked what the commission will do to reduce the bloated senior civil service structure, Mainga said it was up to Geingob to see how he would reduce it.
"Who the President appoints, or who he wants to dismiss, is not the commission's worry. It's not within our mandate," he responded. Mainga said when doing benchmarking with other Southern African Development Community countries, one would say that Namibia's civil service is under-remunerated.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, who was also present during yesterday's meeting, said the commission had made some recommendations to the President, which would be revealed soon.
