City's poisoned chalice

A Windhoek city council meeting, which would have taken place last night to discuss a so-called presidential directive with regard to the continued suspension of City CEO Robert Kahimise and City Police chief Abraham Kanime, was postponed.

This follows a scathing letter from the Namibia Public Workers Union (Napwu), which stated that if President Hage Geingob's directive to reinstate both Kahimise and Kanime was implemented, all their members who are facing disciplinary charges in the City should also return to their jobs with immediate effect.

“We are well aware of the request that was recently made to have charges against Kanime and Kahimise withdrawn,” said Napwu general secretary Peter Nevonga.

“You are also advised that no employee will ever be charged or suspended going forward should the request be implemented.”

Napwu deputy chief Gabes Andumba yesterday said they had not received any feedback from the City.

On Wednesday last week the president instructed the Windhoek city council to reinstate suspended City Police chief Abraham Kanime and to drop disciplinary procedures against municipal chief executive officer Robert Kahimise. The president made a spectacular U-turn on Tuesday and said he had never instructed the city councillors to reinstate Kahimise and drop the charges against him but that he merely wanted to give them direction in addressing the chaos at the City of Windhoek. Kahimise yesterday told Namibian Sun that the council was yet to meet to discuss his fate.

“The council is still discussing the directive of the president. They have not taken a decision,” he said.

Kanime also said: “I have not heard from them yet.”

City councillor Ian Subasubani said a meeting had been scheduled for yesterday evening.





“It was supposed to be this evening (Wednesday), we received a cancellation, that's all. All we know is that it is postponed to a date to be determined,” he said.

City of Windhoek spokesperson Harold Akwenye said the status quo remained as it was before the president's instruction.

He was unaware of a scheduled council meeting to discuss the future of Kahimise and Kanime.

“We had a council meeting yesterday (Tuesday) and there was no such meeting. I was part of the meeting and nothing was discussed regarding Kahimise and Kanime. No such meeting took place yet, if it took place then it is at their houses or privately,” he said.

He emphasised that there was also no directive that the two should be reinstated and that the onus remained on the council to make a decision.

“It is their onus on whether they are going to reinstate or whether they will go the legal route,” said Akwenye.



Unhappy

The president questioned the hiring and firing that is taking precedence over social problems at the City of Windhoek.

“Other one is fired, reinstated, fired, and reinstated. What kind of game is that? Are we happy with that? It is not a kindergarten. Let us talk about serious issues like ghettos, people are living in those conditions,” he said.

The City of Windhoek argued in papers filed at the High Court on Friday that the charges against Kahimise warranted a continuing investigation and were grounds for a possible third suspension.

Kahimise was suspended for the first time in October last year after obtaining a City study loan, allegedly without following the required procedures.

In addition to the alleged study loan misconduct, several other allegations were levelled against him.

These include allegations of non-procedural appointments at the municipality, the alleged quashing of a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that led to Kanime's suspension, questions around a salary increase and the irregular use of municipal property, funds and overtime claims.

Kanime was suspended with full pay in March last year amid a strained relationship with the CEO.

JEMIMA BEUKES