Zambezi NBC employees feel betrayed

MACHEL SITENGUEMPLOYEES of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation in the Zambezi region have, like their colleagues in other regions, marched to the office of the regional governor to hand over a petition last week.

At its Katima Mulilo office, which hosts Nwanyi FM and the public broadcaster’s television news reporters in Zambezi, the NBC has 10 contributors, of whom only two are permanent employees.

The rest have been attached to the broadcaster on a contract basis – like Juliet Sibeso, who has been a contract employee as a radio producer since 2015.

“I have been on a monthly contract basis since I joined the NBC,” Sibeso says.

“It doesn’t sit well with somebody who wants to plan their future nicely. I can’t even afford to buy a house or even put my kids on medical aid,” she says.

Veteran television news reporter Sililo Mubiana is one of the NBC’s permanent employees in Zambezi.

He says the NBC has not paid over employees’ social security contributions as well as funeral covers and other insurance policy premiums, although these were deducted from their salaries.

“The strike will go on as long as the management and government as a stakeholder don’t adhere to our demands, but as soon as they give us a salary increment, they employ our people permanently – we have more than 100 contract workers countrywide – we’ll be free to return to work,” Mubiana says.

NBC employees have been on strike for three weeks. Some employees, however, have not joined the strike, or have returned to work after the industrial action started.

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