2017-06-29Staff Report 2 Kuzeeko Tjitemisa Windhoek-Railway parastatal TransNamib is likely to announce a new chief executive officer (CEO) by early next month, Public Enterprises Minister Leon Jooste, under whose ambit the parastatal resorts, has revealed. “The good news is the process has been completely finalised and we are waiting for the board, hopefully this week, to send the report to myself and the line minister and then it goes to Cabinet for approval,” Jooste said in an interview with New Era yesterday. “It was complicated, I can tell you, and part of the reason that delayed the process is the company was in such a state that they couldn’t pay salaries, so the board wanted to see from the shareholders what their commitments towards the company are before they could start with the process of the appointment of the new CEO, and this process has been completed,” assured the public enterprises minister. Jooste refused to divulge information as to who the company’s preferred candidate is or whether it is a he/she or Namibian or not. “I cannot tell you who he/she is because of the confidentiality in it.” TransNamib in April appointed operational manager Michael Feldmann as an acting CEO, replacing Hippy Tjivikua who acted in that position for almost three years since the suspension of Saara Katiti Naanda in 2014. Naanda was charged with three counts of breach of confidentiality, breach of trust and conflict of interest. The two parties settled out of court in April 2016 after protracted negotiations whereby she received an exit package. Tjivikua recommenced his role as the executive: strategy and stakeholder management, but was later suspended alongside property manager Struggle Ihuhua. Both have since been barred from entering the premises of TransNamib without written and express permission of the board. The two were suspended to enable the company to conduct an unhindered investigation into allegations levelled against them. 2017-06-29Staff Report 2
