Traditional leaders deserve better salaries: Moongo

TRADITIONAL leaders in Namibia are paid ‘peanuts’ and do not receive medical aid or funeral cover, despite their ‘important role’ in rural societies, says a DTA leader.

‘A traditional chief in Namibia receives an allowance of N$23 040 per year, about N$1 920 per month, but a chief in South Africa gets N$94 014 per year,’ DTA Vice President Philemon Moongo told Parliament on Tuesday. ‘The chairperson of the Council of Traditional Leaders in Namibia receives N$28 800 annually, while his South African counterpart gets N$311 336 per year.’Government should align their salaries to what is done in other member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC),’ Moongo urged. The MP had lists of salaries for traditional leaders in these countries handed out in the House by the orderly, prompting Deputy Speaker Doreen Sioka to ask whether the distribution of the list had been authorised by the National Assembly Secretariat. Moongo said he was unaware of this requirement.Sioka then instructed the orderly to remove the lists.In the ensuing debate, some Swapo MPs hinted that some traditional leaders recognised by the South African apartheid regime before Independence had already received allowances, while traditional leaders also had to be supported by their subjects. While some of these chiefs had been regarded as South African ‘puppets’ during the struggle, others rejected the allowances.