Matheus Hamutenya
KEETMANSHOOP – //Kharas Regional Council acting Chief Regional Officer (CRO), Augustinus Ucham who resigned last week has withdrawn his resignation with immediate effect.
Ucham tendered his resignation letter to council chairperson Jan Scholtz, resigning as Director of Planning and acting CRO, but he has now made a U-turn as he withdrew his resignation on Monday after a carrot was literary dangled in front of him.
This was after the regional council allegedly promised him the permanent CRO post.
The CRO post has been vacant after the contract of former CRO Saul Kahuika, who was headed for retirement came to an end in 2016.
Ucham has acted for most of last year and this year.
New Era understands that Ucham resigned after he was offered a job elsewhere, but he is now set to stay, after the council allegedly assured him that he will get the CRO post, which was advertised last week.
Ucham in an interview with New Era confirmed that he has withdrawn his resignation, saying he has reconsidered his decision because ‘the general public was begging him to stay’.
“Most of the general public were begging me to stay when I resigned, I got calls and some even came to my house begging me to rethink, they say many things have changed for better when I arrived here, so I changed my decision,” he said.
He laughed off suspicions that he reconsidered, because he was promised a permanent CRO post, saying these are fabricated lies.
“No there is no truth in that, I have my position as Director of Planning and, I am not interested in the CRO position, it is the people that are against me and were very happy when they heard that I was going, that are coming with these rumours, but it is all fabricated,” he noted.
Scholtz indicated that he was not aware of Ucham’s change of mind and that he did not get an official letter from him yet, but he said the normal procedure will be followed if this is the case.
Scholtz also ridiculed talks of the regional council having promised Ucham the CRO post, saying council cannot promise anyone a position and that vacancies at the regional council are open to anyone in Namibia.
“We cannot promise anyone a position, if someone promised him that then I do not know, council did not,” he said.
He further said the council wants to move forward and hence the decision to advertise the post of CRO, and that interviews will be done, where the best candidate will be chosen.
He urged all who want to apply to do so, saying the post is not reserved for anyone.