All Africa
Windhoek — In an attempt to curtail ballooning public expenditure, President Hage Geingob has decided there will no longer be a ministry served by two deputy ministers.
His decision comes at a crucial time following a public outcry that in order to cut costs and reduce the huge civil service wage bill, government needs to reduce the top-heavy structure, merge some ministries and slash the number of ministers.
Five ministries out of 25 were served by two deputy ministers each. These five ministries are the Office of the Vice President which had Alexia Manombe-Ncube and Royal /Ui/o/oo, while Maureen Hinda and Peya Mushelenga were at the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation; Kilus Nguvauva and James Sankwasa were the two deputies at Works and Transport; Urban and Rural Development had Derek Klazen and Sylvia Makgone; while the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry had Anna Shiweda and Theo Diergaardt.
In making these appointments, the Office of the President said Geingob took into account the need to realign deputy ministers.
Existing vacancies have been primarily filled with appointees from ministries that were previously served by two deputies.
To leverage resources, Geingob clustered three deputy ministers responsible for special recognition categories, marginalised, disability and veterans’ affairs under the Presidency. Disability is deputised by Manombe-Ncube, /Ui/o/oo is the deputy for the marginalised while Hilma Nicanor is now responsible for veterans’ affairs.
Tommy Nambahu has been moved to the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation as a Deputy Minister.
Nambahu replaces Alpheus Muheua who resigned due to ill health, while Engel Nawatiseb who was at Public Enterprises is now the Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology.
Geingob congratulated the new deputy ministers on their appointments.
He warned them not get overly excited and see their new employment as a “free ticket to enter Cabinet,” saying they are duty-bound to deliver on their mandate.