Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Landless People’s Movement (LPM) says it will challenge a High Court order, issued two weeks ago, to reinstate two of its members as local authority councillors at Mariental.
The LPM’s acting national spokesperson for, Eneas Emvula, said over the past weekend that the party is at an advanced stage of preparation to ask the court to rescind its judgement.
“It should be understood that the values of LPM as an alternative party are embedded in the conduct of party members and therefore ought to be protected at all levels of leadership,” said Emvula.
He asserted that the decision taken by the party on 25 February to recall Dawid Gariseb and Rogetha Haack from the Mariental Town Council remained in force. The High Court ordered the LPM to reinstate Gariseb and Haack as members of the town council two weeks ago, after the party recalled them in March.
At the time, Emvula said the councillors had transgressed the constitution and code of conduct of the party and therefore re-instating them would not be the right thing to do.
Reacting to the news, Emvula said the party would study the court judgement thoroughly and respond. Lawyer Richard Metcalfe, who represented Gariseb and Haack, said he would apply for a contempt of court order if the party did not comply with the judgement.
“The time has come for politicians to stop acting like criminals and abide by the laws they create,” said Metcalfe at the time.
Gariseb, in documents filed at the High Court, said he and Haack had not been given a hearing and that a fair process had not been followed before the LPM’s action committee decided to withdraw them from the Mariental Town Council.
He argued that according to the party’s constitution, a disciplinary committee was supposed to be appointed to investigate the allegations levelled against them. He said this was not done, and instead they were replaced in fewer than 20 days by new councillors Frensis Gawases and Andy Boois, without affording Gariseb and Haack an opportunity to appeal the decision.
“No reasons were advanced for the decision to withdraw us as councillors, nor were we afforded the opportunity to present our case at a disciplinary hearing,” said Gariseb in his affidavit. Since the abrupt withdrawal of the two councillors, the LPM has not divulged the charges against the two.
According to court documents, Gariseb said they were accused of colluding with Swapo members and taking bribes in respect of the sale of land by the local authority. They were also accused of blocking the appointment of an assistant to Mariental’s mayor Adam Kuhlman, and were accused of being power hungry. Kuhlman reportedly wanted to appoint a family member to that position.
