Windhoek
Cabinet has approved the appointment of Kahenge Simson Haulofu as managing director of national power utility Nampower.
Haulofu has served as acting managing director in that position since October 2015.
An engineer by profession, Haulofu joined Nampower in 1998 and was until recently general manager for power generation. He previously worked as general manager for engineering services at the same company.
Haulofu, a B.Sc (Civil Engineering) holder from Tampere University in Finland, replaces Paulinus Shilamba who left the company under a cloud of controversy.
The new MD faces the immediate task of addressing recent regular occurrences of power outages such as the devastating nationwide one experienced last week and another one experienced in Windhoek this week.
He is also expected to address issues related to renewable energy generation and the Xaris energy project that has had the country talking for a long spell. Nampower is also tasked to have a base-load power station by 2020 to ensure energy security in the country.
The new MD promised to reduce dependence on power imports from neighbouring countries by ensuring there is increased local production of electricity.
Meanwhile, the City of Windhoek has built a firewall around talks that it plans to appoint Sanlam Investment Management (SIM) head Tega Shiimi ya Shiimi as its chief executive officer, after years of back and forth machinations over the much sought-after job.
City of Windhoek spokesperson Joshua Amukugo said he was in the dark about the recommendation to appoint Shiimi.
“I received three calls today [yesterday] from different media houses enquiring about the same thing but I cannot confirm anything as I was not briefed myself,” he told New Era last night.
It is understood that the interview panel for the city’s CEO job has reached consensus that Shiimi, a business executive of note, should be appointed. This means several candidates in the run for the job, including some internal city executives, could lose out on the highly-politicised position.
The panel has recommended the Sanlam CEO to the city council, which in turn would make the final decision whether to endorse the recommendation or not.
A city councillor confirmed yesterday that the next council meeting would take place in a week’s time and it is expected that high on its agenda would be the recommendation to appoint Shiimi as Windhoek’s CEO.