By: Kelvin Chiringa

The finance ministry’s communications officer, Wilson Ashikoto, has said that B1 road construction workers that are threatening to march on the finance ministry demanding their payments should instead deal with the works ministry.

The workers who have gone unpaid have ditched the Okahandja-Windhoek B1 road citing a lack of payments. On Tuesday, General Secretary of the Metal and Allied Namibian Workers Union (MANWU), Justina Jonas, accused Ipumbu Shiimi of ignoring them.

“They are actually barking at the wrong tree. There are orderly ways of doing things. The road construction falls under the ministry of works and Roads Authority. Them saying that this needs to come from the finance ministry is not correct. We are (being) alerted of (this) for the first time,” he said.

 

Calle Was Better Than Shiimi: MANWU

In the meantime, Shiimi’s leadership style has been sordidly watered down as worse than that of former finance minister Calle Schlettwein. The minister now stands accused of dodging unpaid B1 construction workers’ demands for payments.

MANWU said some workers risk losing their jobs and looking elsewhere as payments remain stuck in the finance ministry offices.

“Calle was not perfect; he is a human being, but he could listen. I remember in 2016, we were spending nights with him to find solutions to this same crisis that we are sitting with now. But different people have different leadership styles, which really is not in the best interest of our people.

“The leadership style he (Shiimi) is using is frustrating. We want solutions because the people affected are our people. These are voters. Tomorrow they want us to vote for them. Calle’s office was just open to us. Iipumbu is different,” she said.

Tuesday afternoon, she was waiting for assurance from the finance ministry that the money would have been deposited by 17h00.

Based on this, they would have a position on whether to proceed with the march on the finance ministerial offices or not to register their plight.

MANWU has until Wednesday to act, she said, of which the demonstration will also knock on the doors of John Mutorwa at the works ministry.

“We do not make empty threats. If we tell you that we are coming to your office, you are not co-operating, we will come,” she said.

She has accused Shiimi of ignorance and deliberately avoiding their calls on the matter of the construction workers.

“Your ignorance of our call two weeks back and several calls we made to your office have forced us to come to your office since you decided to be so honourable and ignore the construction workers’ request,” said Jonas.

She added, “the construction workers employed on the road project between Okahandja and Windhoek are about to lose their jobs because of your poor leadership. If this happens, we will hold you accountable. Mark our words.”

This will not be the first time that the construction workers are demonstrating.

In February of 2021, a media report says that they “walked 21 kilometres to the Otesa Civil Engineering head office, accusing their employer of not paying them their overtime and days worked during the festive season.”