OSHAKATI PLACIDO HILUKILWA
The Ministry of Defence is disturbed by anonymous calls to bring back the former chief of the Namibian Defence Force (NDF), Lieutenant-General (retired) Martin Shalli.
Reacting to an open letter written by NDF members demanding the reinstatement of General Shalli as head of the NDF, defence permanent secretary Petrus Shivute said his ministry cannot comment on the issue, as the president is the appointing authority.
The prerogative to appoint and remove chiefs of the defence force rests entirely with the President of the republic and the ministry will not comment on that issue. The ministry is however seriously disturbed by these anonymous calls, as they seem to question the wisdom in the decisions of the appointing authority, Shivute said.
The letter writers also alleged rampant irregularities and corruption in the country's armed forces.
Tribalism, favouritism and regionalism in the NDF are the cause of death of some hardworking members whose efforts are not given due recognition, they said, calling on President Hifikepunye Pohamba to intervene to root out this disease before it destroys the whole force.
Listing examples of alleged nepotism, corruption and favouritism, the authors alleged that NDF members are promoted based on their relations either with senior NDF officers or high-ranking politicians.
Reacting to the allegations, Shivute advised the authors to make use of internal mechanisms of addressing complaints and grievances. By making use of the internal mechanisms, he or she will equally assist the institution to correct the wrongs for the benefit of all by giving details instead of running to the media with unsubstantiated allegations and forcing our personnel to spend much of their time trying to investigate wild allegations made by a person not prepared to stand for them, he said.
Shivute further said that some of the allegations were of a general nature and it would be very difficult to verify their accuracy.
On the allegation that the relatives of high-ranking officers or senior politicians are recruited for the NDF or sent on promotional courses without following proper procedures, Shivute said nothing improper was done.
Those members who were recruited through 'special projects', such as children of the liberation struggle, were all entitled to be recruited as they all met the condition of being born in exile and that includes children of defence force officers or ex-ministers of defence, he said adding that his ministry sees nothing sinister in the recruitment of such children.
On promotions in the NDF, Shivute said they are not a one-man show but are done through an existing system of checks and balances.
Regarding the controversial Chinese bursaries - already the subject of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission - Shivute said the Ministry of Defence did not play any role in awarding the bursaries.
