Hinda-Mbuende wants SOE insider trading criminalised

Deputy minister of finance Maureen Hinda-Mbuende says insider trading within public enterprises should be criminalised and incorporated into the country’s anti-corruption laws.She raised concerns about this conduct, which in her view is being used to destroy state entities for self-gratification. The laws on insider trading are currently too ambiguous, hence the lack of action against perpetrators, she said.“The reality is that insider trading is not enlisted even in the Anti-Corruption [Act], and it is not identified as corruption – it is talking about self-gratification,” she observed. “But we must call a spade a spade - it is insider trading when people take advantage of privileged information from inside the company to do business for their own benefit.”“What seems to be happening is that non-performance is engineered. Staff members are complaining about the non-performance of management and while this outcry is there, management pays themselves bonuses and the boards exonerate them. We are entertaining mismanagement and insider trading. The latter I am talking about [is in] situations where people are doing business with themselves,” she said. Speaking to Namibian Sun yesterday, Hinda-Mbuende said state entities such as TransNamib should not be privatised or run through public-private partnerships, as they are strategic assets for government.She also questioned the phenomena of outsourcing basic duties such as collecting rental fees for premises owned by state-owned businesses.Transparency neededHead of the Institute of Public Policy and Research (IPPR) Graham Hopwood said there is a need for parastatals to be more transparent because the lack of transparency makes it seem as if these entities are non-performing. “We know little about how they [public entities] function because so few publish annual reports and make audited accounts available. This was a key contributor to Air Namibia&#039;s downfall,” he said.“All we know is that some are huge drains on the fiscus because we see that they receive substantial transfers from the budget. The lack of transparency is also an indication that many public enterprises’ boards are not doing their jobs properly. “If we could get much more information and transparency, an assessment could be made about reforms that need to be made and also whether some should be privatised or closed down,” he said. Personal vs public interestCorporate governance commentator Rui Tyitende argued that, in theory, commercial state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are established to make a profit, or at least break even. These entities’ failure to do so is a confluence of political interference, personal interest as well as poor corporate governance structures, he said.“A good number of them exist as a launching pad or breeding ground for black managers who would be considered unqualified, inexperienced and incompetent to be employed in the private sector. Commercial SOEs will forever remain in this bottomless pit as long as personal interests trump the public interest. "More importantly is that SOEs like TransNamib and other poor performing enterprises operate in complex and competitive environments - but without complex and competitive mindsets,” he said. While he agrees with Hinda-Mbuende that some public enterprises should be governed fully by government - such as the Roads Authority (RA) – he believes there are those that do not need to exist. “RA should remain in the control of government as roads are important to national development. What would the incentive be [to the] private [sector] to construct and maintain roads? “The public will be expected to foot the bill through the introduction of toll gates and the constant escalation in levies. However, TransNamib does not need to exist as there are already private players doing a much better job than they do. They have been a serious liability to taxpayers and diverted much-needed funds for other government social programmes,” he said. jemima@namibiansun.com

Hinda-Mbuende wants SOE insider trading criminalised

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-04

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Hinda-Mbuende wants SOE insider trading criminalised

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-04

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