Shilimela guards ‘not paid’ for two months

Security officers at the Unam’s Ogongo campus have allegedly not been paid since September, prompting threats to strike and calls for the company to honour outstanding wages immediately. Shilimela Security Services’ workers are threatening to down tools as they say they cannot work on empty stomachs. Several efforts to get comment from businessman and Shilimela owner Banda Shilimela were not successful. David Frans, the deputy secretary general of the Namibia Security Workers Union, who spoke on behalf of the affected security officers on Monday, said the company is disregarding the Labour Act. “We are employed by Shilimela Security Services to safeguard the assets of the university. We have previously engaged with the university’s management, who informed us that the institution had already adjusted its invoices to Shilimela company to enable them to pay employees in accordance with the newly gazetted national minimum wage for 2025, including the required back payments. “However, despite receiving these funds, Shilimela Security Services has failed to adjust our wages accordingly,” he said. Frans said the aggrieved security officers want the company to pay all outstanding salaries for September and other months. He said if the company fails to honour this request, the University of Namibia (Unam) must terminate its contract with Shilimela and hire another security company. “The security officers are going for months without receiving any salary, yet they have to report for duty every day. This is unacceptable. “These are people with families, and some of them have debit orders that go off every month. How are they supposed to live while working under such harsh conditions? Shilimela must pay salaries on time or else they must not get government contracts again,” Frans said. Unam says the institution does not owe the security company any money as the payment of invoices are made on time every month.