Workers unmoved by IMF commitment

The Namibian Public Workers Union (Napwu) yesterday said it will not be held hostage by commitments government may have entered into with international lenders, amid allegations that the state agreed to not increase its wage bill as a condition to secure an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan last year.In May 2021, Namibian Sun exclusively revealed unprecedented concessions contained in a letter of intent dated 12 February 2021 in which finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi and Bank of Namibia governor Johannes !Gawaxab said no salary increments for civil servants would be granted as part of the deal to secure the IMF loan.The letter of intent, addressed to IMF head Kristalina Georgieva, also vowed to implement an early retirement scheme for government employees.“We will also publish online, on the website of the ministry of finance, all awarded Covid-19 related procurement contracts, including the names of awarded entities and their beneficial owners, in accordance with Namibia’s Financial Intelligence Act of 2012,” the letter read in part.Shiimi and !Gawaxab also said Namibia would not introduce or intensify exchange and trade restrictions, multiple currency practices and other measures or policies that would exacerbate the balance of payment difficulties.IMF approved Namibia’s N$4 billion loan application under the Rapid Credit Facility, which provides prompt concessional financial assistance to low-income countries facing an urgent balance-of-payments need.The loan – to ward off the advances of Covid-19 - was granted in May 2021, three months after the letter of intent was authored. It is not clear whether the final loan agreement incorporated all conditions contained in the February letter.Not our businessNamibian civil servants are now on the brink of an indefinite strike after reaching a deadlock with government over salary increments and following a landslide vote of 96.4% in favour of industrial action.Napwu general secretary Peter Nevonga yesterday confirmed that they were fully aware of the IMF commitments when they started to engage government to demand for salary increments, but said the union will forge ahead with their members’ demands.He stressed that their only focus right now is to negotiate to improve the working conditions of workers and their salaries - whatever commitment government has to international bodies is not the workers’ business.“That condition cannot be regarded a limitation,” he told Namibian Sun.“We were aware, but does it mean workers should be ignored yet they are affected heavily by inflation and their living conditions and increasing cost of living?“We have an obligation to fight for the rights of our members, irrespective of government’s commitments. I don’t think that is the only loan government has, and those other loans also have their own conditions - some conditions we know, some we don’t even know,” he said. Our decision!Gawaxab is currently on leave out of the country and referred all questions to deputy governor Ebson Uanguta, who was unreachable for comment. Shiimi was also not reachable for comment. However, in June 2021, Shiimi issued a statement in which he said the decision not to increase public servants’ salaries was already in place before securing the IMF loan.“The ministry of finance notes with concern the misrepresentation of the nationally announced policy measures as conditionalities of the [IMF] loan,” he said, adding that the loan “did not come with any conditionalities”.The minister said since the onset of severe economic conditions in 2016, government, through stakeholder consultations and appropriated national budgets, instituted a package of policy response measures to mitigate macro-fiscal risks.This policy response, he said, included managing the increase in the wage bill through a net vacancy freeze and no upward remuneration adjustment.Namibia’s public wage bill now stands at 15.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and constitutes 55.7% of national revenue, a situation government says is unsustainable.jemima@namibiansun.com

Workers unmoved by IMF commitment

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-05

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Workers unmoved by IMF commitment

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-05

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