(MISA/IFEX) – On 27 September 2000, the Namibian Labour Court ordered the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to reinstate senior staff member Norah Appolus to the post of news chief at the public broadcaster. The ruling stemmed from an application to this effect by Appolus following several sweeping changes to the top management of the NBC […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 27 September 2000, the Namibian Labour Court ordered the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to reinstate senior staff member Norah Appolus to the post of news chief at the public broadcaster. The ruling stemmed from an application to this effect by Appolus following several sweeping changes to the top management of the NBC in July.
In his ruling, Acting Judge Shivute ordered the NBC, Board Chairman Uazuva Kaumbi and Appolus’s replacement as news controller, Charles Mubita, to restore her to her position as controller: news and current affairs. Appolus would remain in that position pending the outcome of the proceedings of a conciliation board that was appointed in terms of the Labour Act to try to solve the dispute between her and the NBC. Acting Judge Shivute’s interim order would remain in force until 3 November.
Background Information
In one of the first major decisions taken after a new NBC board was appointed at the end of May, on 4 July, Appolus was removed from the post of news controller that she had held since October 1999.
She was shifted, without a reduction in salary, to the more junior post of manager for training. At the same time, Mubita was shifted from his post in charge of marketing to that of news controller.
The NBC maintained in affidavits to the court that the personnel shifts the board had decided on were intended to cut costs for the NBC and streamline its top-heavy management structure.
Appolus, though, claimed she was removed for political reasons, because reports the NBC had broadcast while she was in charge of its news section had displeased government leaders.
She specifically mentioned reports earlier this year which revealed that some cans containing Namibian fish had had defects, and in which Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was described as “charismatic”.
