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Home / City extends Kanime suspension pending disciplinary hearing
City extends Kanime suspension pending disciplinary hearing
2018-07-26Staff Report 2 Loide Jason WINDHOEK – The City of Windhoek yesterday said it has extended the suspension of Windhoek City Police chief Abraham Kanime, pending finalisation of a disciplinary action against him. In a media statement, City CEO Robert Kahimise said the investigation regarding alleged misconduct by Kanime has been concluded and he will face the disciplinary hearing as per regulations of the City Police. Last week, Kanime’s lawyer Sisa Namandje demanded that his client be reinstated in his job, saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the veteran cop. Namandje said he would prepare a High Court application on behalf of his client this week if he was not reinstated. However, the City yesterday said an independent audit found that there were grounds to institute disciplinary action against Kanime, who stands accused of having used the City’s money irregularly. Kanime has consistently countered that the money was used for the City’s business when he took management to court to compel them to hand a series of his grievances to higher authorities, which he said was consistently ignored. Kanime would now have to explain all this at a hearing soon. In terms of Regulation 20 of Windhoek Municipal Police Services Regulations of 2013 (No 32 of 2013), the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Windhoek is mandated to appoint a board of inquiry that will preside over the disciplinary proceedings. Regulation 20 (i) states that subject to sub-regulation 9, if a member commits an act or omission, head [of City Police] or another member designated for that purpose by the head, must as soon as possible within a period not exceeding three calendar months from the date the head or the other member designated by the head becomes aware of an alleged misconduct, charge the member in writing with misconduct. Sub-regulation 9 says that the CEO may extend the period referred to in the sub-regulation to a further period, depending on circumstances to charge a member if the investigation into the misconduct has not yet been completed due to the complexity of the investigation of any outstanding information. The media release says that the appointment of the board of inquiry is in progress and the hearing will commence in due course. The procedures of the board of inquiry are that it must determine its own procedures and the chairperson must make sure that the enquiry is conducted in such a manner as he or she considers fair and most suitable to the clarification of the issues before the board, and generally to the just handling of the proceedings. “Consequently, the suspension of Chief Abraham Kanime will remain in force pending the finalisation of the disciplinary inquiry, and he has been formally informed of this development,” said the media release. Kanime has been on suspension since 26 March, 2018. 2018-07-26Staff Report 2
