More than half of the managers at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) are on sick leave or on annual leave. Despite a salary bill that exceeds N$145 million the corporation is now operating on a shoe-string staff compliment, following an aborted restructuring process.

Sources within the corporation claim that the Chief News and Programming Officer, Dr. Audrin Mathe, staged a brief, noiseless coup d’état against his boss, Albertus Auchumub, the Director-General of the NBC, by realigning managers while the latter was on an overseas trip.  Inside sources are adamant that Auchumub was not aware of Dr. Mathe’s reshuffling of several top and middle managers. Auchumub however clarified that it was he who made the new offers to the managers and instructed them to start in their new positions on 1 August. Mathe says he was in Russia when the changes were made and denied, in the presence of Auchumub, that he was ever involved in the matter. Auchumub earlier told Informanté that he is fully aware of what Mathe did and had discussed the streamlining with Mathe before he went to Cuba for two days. He could however not explain why such a drastic step was taken without the board’s approval.
“We did discuss with all the colleagues what should happen,” Mathe countered, adding that he only consulted with managers under his jurisdiction, but was not responsible at all for the strategic move. “We were not even given reasons why we are being moved around… Many of the managers are on leave. There is instability at the NBC. All of a sudden everything was stopped, when he (Auchumub) returned, despite the fact we were supposed to start on 1st of August,” reported one of the managers. The re-alignment was stopped in its tracks, pending the board’s approval at the end of August.
“Things are getting too hot for him (Auchumub) now and he is looking for collective blame for the situation. He messed up and now wants to win back support. The managers are unhappy. I doubt it that he got the instruction from the board. He always wanted to get some of us (old exco members) out,” alleged another insider.
Dr. Mathe laughed off allegations that he is being encouraged by political handlers behind the scenes to undermine the authority of Auchumub and that he has been tipped off to become the next DG of the NBC.
“There is no bad blood between me and Audrin. There’s no vacancy in the DG’s office. Only the board can decide who will run the NBC. Audrin reports to me and I run the institution. We are both steering the ship,” Auchumub explained.
The DG explained that the delay in the restructuring was due to a pending decision on 28 August when the board is expected to approve any structural changes at the national broadcaster. Most of the managers [names known] have now been reshuffled. A few declined the offer.
Staff morale is reportedly to be at an all-time low. “We are here to work, whatever happens we are the servants of the people,” one disappointed manager told Infor-manté.