(MISA/IFEX) – On 3 November 2000, senior Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) employee Norah Appolus reached a settlement with the NBC in a case in which she was challenging her removal as head of the news and current affairs division. The settlement involved Appolus agreeing to move to a different senior management post. In terms of […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 3 November 2000, senior Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) employee Norah Appolus reached a settlement with the NBC in a case in which she was challenging her removal as head of the news and current affairs division. The settlement involved Appolus agreeing to move to a different senior management post.
In terms of the settlement, Appolus is to be appointed with immediate effect as controller: training and development at the NBC. The appointment is in a permanent capacity.
“The Namibian” newspaper reported Appolus saying that although the settlement was not what she had wanted, she and the NBC each had to compromise to settle a dispute which could have become very protracted and could have resulted in the corporation deciding to resort to lock-out to force her to accept the NBC board’s decision to shift her.
Background Information
In one of the first major decisions taken after a new NBC board was appointed at the end of May, Appolus was removed on 4 July from the post of controller: news and current affairs that she had held since October 1999. She was shifted, without a reduction in salary, to the more junior post of manager for training. Several other senior managers were also shifted to other posts.
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”.
