By Ellen Albertz

Copyright namibian

The future of the 138 employees at Epupa Investment Technology, which trades as Epupa Investech – the company that was tasked with the distribution of state social grants from 2011, is uncertain.

The tender was awarded to NamPost last month.

The employees who were tasked with distributing old-age, disability and other social grants, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, have expressed fear of losing their jobs.

They say they were given only one month’s notice, which came abruptly and disrupted their future planning.

According to them, there was no prior communication that the tender was coming to an end, which would have given them more time to prepare.

Epupa Investment managing director Shalli Ben-Elungu yesterday told The Namibian that consultations are still underway between the government, NamPost and Epupa concerning the future of employees.

“This conversation we are having is too early. There could be considerations made of whether these employees will be absorbed into NamPost or the government. The government is consulting among themselves, as you know even the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations gets involved and the attorneys’ office.

“So only next week will there really be a definite answer of what’s going to happen,” said Ben-Elungu.

He said the employees were informed a month ago that their contract to distribute pension and other social grants will come to an end in September as NamPost will take over the task.

“Tenders come with time limits. Now a new service provider has been identified to take over that service. Obviously, it will affect jobs. Just as we were informed as the management of the company, we had to inform our staff members and employees of the developments taking place and that their jobs will be affected,” said Ben-Elungu.

The Ministry of Finance in July announced that NamPost will become the official service provider for the cash distribution of social grants across the country, effective 1 October.

In a statement, the ministry says this new arrangement aims to improve service efficiency, enhance financial inclusion and ensure convenient access to social grants for all eligible recipients.

“Under the new system, all social grant recipients residing within a town or settlement will collect their grants directly from their nearest NamPost office. Only those living in areas beyond a five-kilometre radius will continue to receive their grants through NamPost’s established mobile outreach and delivery services,” says the statement.

Ministry of Finance spokesperson Wilson Shikoto says there is no way the finance or gender ministry can absorb the employees of Epupa as the company is a private entity.

“I am not aware of such a discussion about the employees going to us or gender. The only arrangement that could possibly work is for NamPost and Epupa to have the discussion and reach such an agreement about the employees being taken over with the contract or how many NamPost could need.

“But that will only be if NamPost is in agreement and wants to go that route,” says Shikoto.

NamPost has in the meantime started to prepare the company for the distribution of grants and have expressed their intention to recruit additional temporary employees to assist with the distribution of the social grant.

The request is to support NamPost in deploying additional staff to high-volume branches and utilising mobile teams with security to handle increased volume and reach remote areas for the social grant payments.

The company is preparing for this takeover from October by upgrading systems, registering beneficiaries and launching awareness campaigns, with first payments scheduled for November.

In a letter written on 27 August to regional councils, NamPost says it is prioritising candidates who reside within the respective regions and constituencies.

In the letter, NamPost human resource executive Ekonia Mudjanima says the company is requesting assistance from the regional councils of Omaruru, Arandis, Swakopmund and Henties Bay to assist with announcing the opportunity and gathering CVs from suitable young candidates.

“NamPost will proceed with its recruitment and selection procedures based on the CV’s submitted through your office. As part of our commitment to empowering local communities we believe that engaging young people from the community will not only create meaningful jobs but also contribute to local development and socio-economic upliftment,” says Mudjanima.