Jooste ‘severely’ confined by SOE Act

The minister of public enterprises, Leon Jooste, says he is severely confined by the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Governance Act in its current format. Jooste reacted on remarks by the Congress of Democrats (CoD) that his ministry had no “real powers to act” in an event where funds are squandered or mismanaged at SOEs. Jooste lamented that he was severely confined by the current legislation governing public enterprises in Namibia. “I am severely confined by the current legislation and will only be able to drive the reforms once our amendment is passed. The draft [bill] was approved by Cabinet and we are following due process to table this in Parliament in February,” he said. Last week, CoD acting president, Elago Amuthenu, chastised what he termed continued squandering of public resources by government officials. “It may be time that some officials are arraigned in the courts of our country for this continued malaise. The Auditor General has shown time and again that lack of accountability is systemic, but alas, without any response from the government,” he was quoted as saying in a statement. Amuthenu went on to say that “all organs of State have continued to squander the limited public resources like a drunk at a casino, with no care in the world”.According to the acting CoD president, SOEs were the main culprits as far as lack of accountability was concerned.“SOEs continue to show disregard for the country’s tax laws and sound management of the resources under their management. The SOEs’ greatest expertise appears to be to stand hand in cap at the Minister of Finance’s door for yet another round of millions of dollars to put to waste,” charged Amuthenu.In the hard-hitting statement, Amuthenu went on to accuse SOEs of being imprudent and careless.The statement further called on Jooste to “wake up from his slumber”. “He [Jooste] needs to have real powers to act instead of making cameo appearances long after the corpse has been removed from the crime scene,” it read. - Nampa

Jooste ‘severely’ confined by SOE Act

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Republikein 2026-03-10

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Jooste ‘severely’ confined by SOE Act

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Republikein 2026-03-10

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