Ester Mbathera
The board of the Namibia Press Agency (Nampa) has distanced itself from the secondment of its head of commercial services, Confidence Musariri, to the New Era newspaper.
Musariri was to resume the role of managing editor following the departure of Jonathan Beukes last month.
In a letter dated 15 November, addressed to the Minister of Information and Communication Technology, board members Ndeuhala Katonyala-Lewis, Kingsley Guiseb, Elias Mwenyo, Bertha Amakali, and Kaulikalelwa Nghishitende stated they were unaware of the arrangement between the two media houses.
“The board became aware, via the media reports of the secondment of Mr. Confidence Musariri, a Nampa employee, to New Era Publications Corporation,” read the letter seen by the Windhoek Observer.
The board convened a special meeting last Thursday to discuss what they described as procedural violations and the absence of a formal policy governing secondments between the entities.
“It was noted that the secondment occurred without the requisite board approval and consultation,” reads the letter.
The board also observed that Linus Chata, the chief executive officer of Nampa, did not offer adequate explanations, indicating uncertainty in the agency’s handling of such matters.
The Windhoek Observer has learned that Nampa and New Era signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 11 November, which facilitated Musariri’s secondment.
The board has since revoked the MoU.
On Saturday, the Nampa board dismissed allegations of political interference in its decision-making processes following claims made by Affirmative Repositioning (AR) leader Job Shipululo Amupanda on social media.
Amupanda, in his statement, said: “We have successfully intervened in preventing the capture of New Era by the political forces of the corrupt party that fired the former editor and brought a deployee from NAMPA to be the editor.”
In a statement, the NAMPA board explained that the revocation of Confidence Musariri’s secondment to the New Era was not influenced by political considerations.
“Allowing the CEO to bypass these procedures would create an undesirable precedent.”
The same day, Chata also wrote to his counterpart at New Era, Christof Maletsky, informing him of the Nampa board’s decision.
“The board’s decision reflects a commitment to good corporate governance practice of which procedural matters are central,” said Chata.
Maletsky responded to Chata the same day, acknowledging the decision by the Nampa board.
“We are mindful of your commitment to good corporate governance practices,” he said.
Meanwhile, Beukes, who is the former managing editor, refuted claims that he was offered a golden handshake when he parted ways with New Era last month.
“What golden handshake? I was paid out only part of the 3 years and 3 months I had left on my contract. I decided to accept it so I could concentrate on recovering mentally. The paper’s lack of communication about my departure and the embarrassing manoeuvres to replace me last week showed that we should all be worried about the attempts to suffocate press freedom. Namibians should know that freedom of expression and the media are usually the first casualties in the march toward an undemocratic dispensation. We should all guard against this,” he said.
Beukes said senior civil servants, who are meddling in the affairs of media houses if they want political power, must be brave enough to compete for office.
“People must start to ask who sits behind the schoolboy errors of last week and why they are trying to install Louis Pienaar without a clear competitive hiring process?,” he said.