Govt willing to increase magistrates’ allowances

The government is willing to substantially increase the housing and vehicle allowances of Namibia’s magistrates, who this week embarked on a strike after more than two weeks of go-slow action, the minister of justice and labour relations, Wise Immanuel, says.

The allowance adjustments the government is willing to give to magistrates would involve increases of 53% to nearly 58% on housing allowances, and of 25.5% to 26.5% on vehicle allowances, Immanuel said at a media briefing in Windhoek yesterday.

The increases are guided by principles set out in a decision of former minister of finance Iipumbu Shiimi in October 2023, after he considered a proposal by the Magistrates Commission to increase magistrates’ housing and vehicle allowances, Immanuel said.

The minister said a letter from Shiimi, in which his concurrence for allowance increases for magistrates was recorded, forms the legal basis for adjustments to magistrates’ allowances during the 2025/26 financial year.

The increases the government is willing to implement would see magistrates’ and senior magistrates’ housing allowances being adjusted from N$52 320 annually to N$81 305, while their vehicle allowances would rise from N$70 797 annually to N$88 850, Immanuel said.

Principal magistrates’ housing allowances would increase from N$62 640 annually to N$97 342, while their vehicle allowances would increase from N$79 656 to N$99 968.

The vehicle allowances of regional court magistrates, divisional magistrates and deputy chief magistrates would increase from N$83 160 to N$131 280, and their vehicle allowances would be adjusted from N$108 449 to N$136 485 annually, Immanuel said.

The chief magistrate’s housing allowance would increase from N$92 880 currently to N$142 104 annually, and the position’s vehicle allowance would increase from N$118 085 to N$149 351 annually, Immanuel said as well.

“All magistrates would receive significant percentage increases in either housing or car allowances, or both, depending on their job grades,” Immanuel said.

“This remains the position that the minister of justice and labour relations is ready to finalise,” he said.

Immanuel said allowance increases proposed by the Magistrates Commission three weeks ago were “totally out of tune” with Shiimi’s October 2023 letter, in which he set out allowance increases that could be given to magistrates.

In terms of Shiimi’s decision two years ago, the car allowances of principal magistrates, senior magistrates and magistrates ought not to have been adjusted, as their equivalent job grades in the public service are not entitled to those benefits, Immanuel said.

“The magistrates appear to be under the wrong impression that once they made a proposal [for increases] through the Magistrates Commission for submission to the minister of justice and labour relations, then the latter must simply gazette,” Immanuel said.

He added: “Government is ready to gazette the aligned allowances that strictly follow the [finance minister’s] 2023 concurrence principles and the applicable job grades.”

Magistrates’ current demands “are largely based on inaccurate information”, Immanuel claimed, adding that the allowance increases the government is prepared to approve “are fair, affordable and based the corresponding job grades”.

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