Africa-Press – Namibia. THE ports authority has cancelled its plan to appoint a City of Windhoek official, who faced charges at the municipality.
Namibian Ports Authority (Namport) appointed City of Windhoek’s strategic executive for electricity O’Brien Hekandjo to lead the company’s port operations. This appointment was made despite Hekandjo facing disciplinary charges at City of Windhoek.
Before joining the City of Windhoek , Hekandjo also had a case of suspension from the position of chief technical services officer at the Namibia Power Corporation (NamPower).
The decision to appoint Hekandjo irked public enterprises minister Leon Jooste, who, upon finding out via The Namibian, instructed the ministry’s executive director to look into the matter.
“Please contact the Namport CEO (chief executive officer). I believe that they have taken an appropriate decision,” Jooste said when contacted for comment last week.
Namport CEO Andrew Kanime did not respond to questions sent to him. Acting executive for port operations Widux Mutwa last week confirmed that Hekandjo has not started work at Namport.
He was set to assume his new role at Namport on 1 November. “Mr Hekandjo is not yet here. Maybe he is still coming. Try him on his mobile phone,” Mutwa said last week.
Hekandjo could be jobless, since he resigned from the City of Windhoek. City of Windhoek former acting chief executive George Mayumbelo told The Namibian on Friday that Hekandjo is no longer their employee.
“He voluntarily resigned and left last month. His resignation was processed and accepted. He has not been here since last month. He didn’t have to give reasons why he resigned,” he said.
Mayumbelo said the City of Windhoek will no longer be pursuing the charges against Hekandjo. Hekandjo was charged with allegedly disclosing confidential council information. He was further accused of abusing his position of trust at the city.
The charges emanate from an incident which took place in January 2018 during which Hekandjo allegedly disclosed the outcome of a recruitment process to one of the applicants vying for a city engineering job.
Hekandjo was chairing the said recruitment process. Despite the process, the city had not sanctioned the appointment, resulting in complaints and legal threats by the said candidate against the city.
“He is no longer an employee, so we don’t have authority over him,” Mayumbelo said.
Hekandjo said he is now contemplating taking legal action against Namport after the company cancelled his appointment for the position of executive responsible for port operations.
“Regarding the first two questions, I cannot comment at this stage as I am still considering possible litigation on these matters,” Hekandjo told The Namibian last week when asked the reasons given for the contract termination.
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