By: Kelvin Chiringa

City of Windhoek mayor, Sade Gawanas, has outrightly rejected councilor Job Amupanda’s submission that the hunt for a substantive Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has been riddled with corruption and a desire to protect the interests of the management committee.

Amupanda has submitted that he may be forced to drag the committee to court for contravening provisions of the Anti-Corruption Act.

He accused the MC of using the strength of numbers to hijack the recruitment process to suit its agenda.

Amupanda said that the MC called off the CEO’s recruitment by making excuses that members shortlisted were Swapo, and that George Mayumbelo was not supposed to be on the panel.

However, Gawanas said “I wrote to him and I asked of him to submit such evidence to my office in order for me to look through and make a clear contribution to that matter. He sent that submission at 15:15 while the meeting was starting at 15:30 and that submission was 26 pages long.”

Gawanas has insisted that everything that has been done so far has been above board, but added that the process has been riddled with sabotage, and political fights based on long standing personal vendettas.

“I was going to discuss (Amupanda’s) submission regarding the matter of the recruitment of the CEO. But then Swapo stood up, councilor Nujoma was shouting at me. Kwenani and them stood up with councilor Kamati telling me “yea, we are not your children”, and councilor Nujoma walked out. They basically disrupted the whole council meeting. Councilor Amupanda and Hanases stood up which meant that there was not quorum for the meeting,” she said.

She said the MC, led by Amupanda, resolved that the selection process for the CEO last year be redone, however they were supposed to report back to council as to their duties under Section 21 of the Local Authorities Act, but this did not happen.

She also said that the MC has statutory powers to resolve who they recommend to the minister for him to make a decision.

“There were many council meetings last year and there was never a resolution taken because council cannot take a resolution on that matter. The MC has the statutory power according to the regulation of the minister for the recruitment of the CEO.

“Later on, I became the chairperson. What transpired is that, during the meeting where the MC was to report to council, they were then bombarded with the HR submission that came to council without following proper procedure,” said the mayor.

She contended that the MC should thus have been given a chance to report to council.

However, Amupanda accused the MC of misreading the regulation, and that as per due procedure, names are submitted by the HR for approval by the MC.

He also said the MC bemoaned losing control of the process to put in a CEO of their choice.

While the candidates were eventually shortlisted, he said the MC insisted on restarting the process “to ensure that the interest of the coalition is protected”.

Gawanas has said, “There is an avenue for councilor Amupanda to have raised his concerns last year when he was the chairperson of council.”