WINDHOEK – The behind-the-scenes scheming regarding the hiring of the City of Windhoek CEO last Friday took a theatrical turn with the exercise deferred to 2015.
The 15-person Windhoek City Council deferred the appointment to 2015 following allegations of preferential treatment of some applicants jostling for the job despite their lack of experience and inappropriate qualifications.
Council was expected to make its final recommendations last week on Friday to the Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, (Rtd) Major-General Charles Namoloh, but were instructed to wait until next year, said impeccable sources.
Initially the kingpins driving the recruitment exercise, outgoing CEO Niilo Taapopi, Agnes Kafula and Moses Shiikwa the Chairperson of the Management Committee of the City of Windhoek, reportedly tried in vain to have Namoloh rubberstamp a letter, “which they wrote on his behalf” but Namoloh was not amused and he refused outright to sign the questionable letter.
To make matters worse Namoloh was reportedly booked off when the trio tried to pressurise him to rubberstamp the letter that would have legitimised the recruitment.
The letter would have given the trio free rein to recommend to the city council their “favoured candidate”. Council in turn was expected to forward the rubberstamped recommendation to the line minister.
When contacted for comment yesterday on ongoing shenanigans at the City of Windhoek, Namoloh indicated he was not feeling well and was still booked off from work.
Efforts on Sunday to get clarity from Taapopi proved futile as his number was on voicemail indicating he was unreachable.
Reports are circulating within the corridors of the City of Windhoek that senior managers with degrees and a scattering of other university qualifications should not be shortlisted because people driving the recruitment want to protect their interests.
“People didn’t want to make fools of themselves by applying (for the CEO position) knowing there are already some senior people with their own hidden agendas,” bemoaned one of the managers.
Insiders accuse a cabal comprising of Taapopi, Kafula and Shiikwa of trying to circumvent the vexed hiring enmeshed in double-dealings and the exclusion of applicants with the requisite job experience and academic qualifications.
Kafula was until recently the Windhoek mayor who left behind a dubious legacy of questionable land deals that left a bitter after-taste in the mouths of many residents.
Sources feel council should at least enlist an independent panel list unlike the current three-person panel they accuse of nepotism.
One municipal source that requested anonymity for fear of victimisation said some of the applications of some of the shortlisted candidates “were squeezed in at the eleventh hour”. The source stressed people wanting to impose a CEO on the City of Windhoek brushed aside a crucial requirement entailing all interviewees to have strategic management experience.
Another insider quoted Section 27 of the Local Authorities Act that stipulates local authorities should consult the Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development when they appoint a CEO or a town clerk, and indicated that the Windhoek City Council will now follow this route that some people tried to bypass.
Another source that also requested anonymity said the appointment has become so contentious that even Swapo councillors are “divided” over the issue.
Sources are asking the question whether the recent controversial land deals are the main reason some people want to have a figurehead CEO whom they can control.
By Staff Reporter