Concern over public service payroll

Opposition party members yesterday shared their views on the national budget, questioning the public service wage bill, the Mass Housing Project and corruption.SWANU president Usutuaije Maamberua felt that finance minister Calle Schlettwein had not addressed land adequately. “Mass Housing is not a solution; land is a different kettle of fish. All of this will demand a lot of resources. The budget does not address that,” he said. Maamberua was also concerned about the allocation to the state-owned mining enterprise Epangelo Mining in view of calls for further beneficiation and ownership in the mining sector. “The allocation to Epangelo remains sluggish. Government does not have the political will to get into the mining sector; we are not paying attention to that,” Maamberua said.DTA treasurer Nico Smit felt that the budget was a mere repetition of last year's. “There was nothing new; it was just a repetition of the budget of last year,” he said.Schlettwein announced that the Anti-Corruption Commission would get an additional N$50 million to strengthen its operations. The move was welcomed by Smit, who said: “I am happy that money was allocated to fight corruption. I think that this country is losing money through corruption.”Smit expressed concern that 49% of government revenue would go towards the salaries of public servants.“Another concern [apart from corruption] is the wage bill. We can't pay 50% of our income on wages. We will have to do something about the wage bill and nothing is being done.” Smit also expressed disappointment about a recent remark by President Hage Geingob when he blamed the size of the public service on the apartheid government. “The president's statement was ridiculous. The World Bank and everybody are complaining but we do nothing about it. Something must be done,” the DTA politician said.Rally for Democracy and Progress vice-president Steven Bezuidenhout felt that it was too soon to give his impressions of the budget and asked for more time. He did say, though: “I hope we will be able to deliver. It is a serious squeeze that we are in. I hope we can execute this budget.”Schlettwein tabled the budget for the 2017/18 financial year in parliament on Wednesday afternoon. N$62.5 billion has been budgeted for, which is a slight increase on last-year's mid-term budget which saw N$5 billion being pulled back in expenditure cuts across the board. As usual, education (N$11.98 billion), followed by health (N$6.51 billion) and defence (N$5.68 billion) got the biggest chunks of the budget.OGONE TLHAGE

Concern over public service payroll

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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Concern over public service payroll

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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