The dismissed chairman of the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) says he is still in charge of the beleaguered broadcaster, despite given verbal marching orders by the minister, writes Denver Isaacs in The Namibian.

 

"I'm demanding it (dismissal letter). Legally, I'm still the chairperson. This can't just be done verbally like this. Its not the way things are done in a civilisation like this one," Ponhele ya France told The Namibian.


Ya France was given his marching orders on Monday after being called in by the Minister of Information Joel Kaapanda.

The Ministry of Information yesterday remained mum on the reason behind the axing.

The Minister and other senior officials in the Ministry were all said to be unavailable for comment.

Kaapanda's personal assistant, Mvula Ya Nangoloh, would only say that he was "not the one to speak to".

When approached for comment, Ya France said Kaapanda had simply told him "he had lost his trust and confidence in me".

"I asked him what this meant, and what about (serving on) the board itself, and he told me 'both'," Ya France said.

Ya France has not yet received any written notice of his dismissal, and says he thus does not accept the validity of the Minister's decision.

"I asked where was the letter of dismissal and he told me, 'what letter?' This is certainly not conventional and it's not in accordance with the law. So I wouldn't call it dismissal. One could maybe rather call it harassment," he said.

Ya France said he did not think the decision was based on any performance-related reasons, but rather on recent behind-the-scenes politicking related to Government suspicion over possible Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) members in the driving seat at parastatals.

"When we started, the NBC had an overdraft amount of N$36 million. Now there's no overdraft. I'm proud to say that there is absolutely no incompetence that they can speak of," he said.

Click here to read the full report, posted on The Namibian's website.