By: Hertha Ekandjo
The works and transport minister John Mutorwa says TransNamib workers took company properties for personal ownership out of greed.
The minister stressed that TransNamib was a holding with a lot of properties but lost most of it via ‘greedy’ employees.
Mutorwa said this on Wednesday at the workshop on the Railway Institutional Set-Review at TransNamib in Windhoek.
“I also know, since it’s now been for four years that I am in this ministry, there was a time when the properties of TransNamib were mismanaged deliberately. A lot of TransNamib’s properties ended up in individual hands,” he stressed.
He added that TransNamib had a lot of properties all over the country, such as housing and much more.
Last month the state-owned railway company auctioned a number of its non-core properties in nine towns from its properties portfolio valued at N$2,4 billion.
Mutorwa mentioned that one of the issues in the strategic business plan was the utilisation of the property. Probably some of them sell them and make money.”
“Therefore, if there’s a way to get them back, we will. We still have got some court cases, and some we have won already. Really where are we going with this country? Where is this individual greed coming from,” he expressed.
The minister stressed that the country faced abuse of public property, abuse of public offices and of public resources.
“Then we cry that we are poor,” he noted.
Mutorwa stated that one should be open-minded and that public properties were meant to benefit the general public, ‘every resident of the country including tourists because a railway, road or airport would not discriminate against anyone.
Moreover, he said there was a need to separate various railway responsibilities and functionalities to enhance safety and efficiency at TransNamib.
According to the minister, in order to gain a deeper understanding of how such separation would happen and which institutions needed to support segregated railway responsibilities, the government appointed a consultant to conduct a feasibility study into the said matters.
“The main objective of the said consultancy was to develop the most appropriate institutional and organisational arrangements for improving the performance of the rail sub-sector in Namibia,” he said.
He added that the study also aimed to ensure adequate and sustainable funding for railway network maintenance in the country.
Mutorwa noted that the upgrading of national transport infrastructures, particularly the upgrading of Namibia’s railway between Walvis Bay and Kranzberg railway stations to SADC standards, was a set goal of strengthening Namibia’s position as a Transport and Logistics Hub.
According to him, the broad vision of railway transportation services in the country was for Namibian railway systems to ultimately become the preferred transport mode of choice by 2030 and beyond.
He emphasised that in order to achieve the said vision, it was necessary to implement strategic principal policy approaches that would visibly improve rail and multimodal infrastructure.
“Reforming railway activities, systems and developing key combined policy packages that surely must enhance synergies in the transport fraternity and transport sector in the country,” said Mutorwa.
Earlier this month, Ernst & Young concluded a report into the alleged corruption and mismanagement at TransNamib.
According to media reports, the report found manipulation of lease agreements, unauthorised bonuses paid to executives and to also renegotiate agreements.
When the state entity auctioned off its properties last month, its spokesperson Abigail Raubenheimer said, “in 2018, we received the go-ahead from the Cabinet to alienate properties that are not central to business operations. We have quite a big property portfolio, and thus, we are alienating them to raise funds for our business plan. The company needs to raise a total of N$2.5 billion over the period of five years to support the implementation of the Business Plan and to be able to lift itself from insolvency.”