Maria Amakali
The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) said it is preparing to file for the rescission of a recent court order which compelled the party to reinstate two of its Mariental local authority councillors, who were recalled in February this year.
Last month, Deputy Judge President Hosea Angula gave a default judgement in a suit against LPM, filed by its members Daniel Gariseb and Rogetha Haack. This was after the LPM failed to file relevant documents, despite having filed a notice of their intent to oppose the application.
The court declared the LPM’s committee’s decision to recall Gariseb and Haack as null and void, and further directed the party to reinstate the two councillors.
Despite the court order, the party in its media statement dated 7 October said it did not comply with the order, and will proceed with filing for a rescission of the said judgement.
In the suit, Gariseb and Haack claimed they were recalled after having been accused of taking bribes in respect of the sale of land by the local authority. They were also accused of being ‘power-hungry’, colluding with Swapo members, and blocking the appointment of an assistant to Mariental mayor Adam Kuhlman.
In their court documents, Gariseb and Haack further argued that as per the party’s constitution, a disciplinary committee was supposed to be appointed to investigate the allegations levelled against them.
But such was not done, and they were notified in March of the party’s decision to recall them as councillors. The two were replaced with fellow party members Frensis Gawases and Andy Boois, without further affording Gariseb and Hack a period of 20 days to appeal the party’s decision to recall them as stipulated in the party’s constitution.