The Minister of Higher Education, Training and Innovation, Hon. Dr. Itah Kandjii-Murangi, recently visited the Namibia Institute of Mining and Technology (NIMT) campus at Arandis as well as the NIMT Northern campus to address management and staff on the issue of retrenchment of some employees that was recently reported in the media.
In addressing the management staff, Kandjii-Murangi informed staff that it was an unfortunate incident that about 44 employees of NIMT were served with retrenchment letters.
She stated that after reading about the retrenchments at the institute, as line Minister, she approached some NIMT Board of Trustees to be appraised on the retrenchments at the institution.
The Trustees whom she met confirmed to the Minister that there was no board resolution for employees to be retrenched, although the institute management presented to the Board of Trustees the financial challenges the institution was facing, as well as a proposal on cost cutting measures.
In principle the Trustees accepted that given the current financial challenges the institution was facing, it was prudent for management to implement cost cutting measures and revert back to the trustees with a more detailed cost cutting proposals.
The Minister informed both management and staff of the unfortunate situation, which resulted in some NIMT staff to be served with retrenchment letters while there was no such a resolution from the Board of trustees. She directed management to reinstate the retrenched employees and to request them to report back for duty immediately.
The Minister stressed the important role of the institution is playing in developing the needed vocational and technical skills to the youth, which are critical ingredients for Namibia to attain its Vision 2030 as well as to address unemployment and addressing the scourge of poverty in the country.
Hon. Dr. Kandjii-Murangi stated that government will not allow institutions such a NIMT to sink given the financial challenges the centre is faced with.
She assured members of management and staff that the Ministry is aware of the financial challenges that some of the agencies under the Ministry was facing, and stated that the Ministry was consulting with the Ministry of Finance to see how the financial situation could be remedied.
She appealed to both management and staff to become more innovative and to implement cut costing measures at the various NIMT campuses.
Kandjii-Murangi further encouraged staff members stating that these were difficult times and noted that transformation at NIMT was inevitable to ensure that the institution is managed more sustainably. She further said that retrenchment should be the last resort. She requested that all retrenched employees to report back immediately.
The Minister concluded her address to staff and management by saying that it was not the time to abundant the ship referring to NIMT, and employees should collectively put efforts together and called for collectivity amongst staff for NIMT to survive.
