Amupanda cautions City’s acting CEO
Battle rages for recruitment control
Cracks are showing within the City of Windhoek's governing alliance, as LPM and IPC differ on how the new CEO must be recruited.
Former Windhoek mayor Job Amupanda has told City of Windhoek acting CEO O'Brien Hekandjo to be “careful” of “being used in corrupt activities”.
This following an instruction last week that Hekandjo must restart the process of recruiting a substantive CEO for the municipality.
The instruction, in a letter date 1 July, came from City management committee chairperson Ndeshihafela Larandja of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC).
The opposition-dominated city council is split on the appointment of a CEO, with IPC in particular charging that last year’s interviews were flawed and the process must thus start afresh.
New mayor Sade Gawanas, of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), last week said she was opposed to the process being restarted.
Amupanda had previously alleged that there was a plot within the opposition alliance at the City to discard the ongoing recruitment process because all the candidates are perceived Swapo members.
Be careful
In communication to Hekandjo, Amupanda wrote: “Without going into detail, I would like to remind you that the chairperson indicated that a meeting will be called to deal with the matter.
“Be careful of being used in corrupt activities. Please take this matter seriously and I would like to place this on record for posterity. I have equally copied this to councillors and executives,” the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) leader warned.
The fact that Gawanas, whom Larandja nominated to become mayor in the last mid-term election, differs with the IPC councillor on this thorny issue points to potential cracks within the alliance.
Namibian Sun understands that AR and Swapo are planning an alliance to topple the current one. The two formations, who have seven seats collectively, would need at least one more councillor from another party to obtain eight seats collectively and be in the majority.
They would then seek to vote for a mayor and management committee members from among themselves - elbowing the current leadership to the periphery.
No succession planning
The ongoing impasse over the filling of the vacant CEO position has been ascribed to poor succession planning at the municipality.
This is according to its incumbent strategic executive for human capital, George Mayumbelo, who cautioned that the current status quo presents a significant risk to the City.
The municipality’s organogram makes provision for 10 strategic executives, however, three of those positions have been vacant for years. Mayumbelo’s will also be vacant later this year when he goes into retirement.
City Police chief Abraham Kanime and the strategic executive for infrastructure and technical services Ludwig Narib are due to bow out next year.
According to Mayumbelo, a series of meetings were held pertaining to succession planning of key positions within the organisation, highlighting the importance of ensuring the timely filling of success-critical positions scheduled to become vacant over a five-year period.
Significant challenge
“This impasse presents a significant challenge as there is no clear direction on the way forward and the finalisation of executive recruitment. Particularly that of the CEO remains in limbo,” he said.
“As you will agree, the finalisation of the appointment of executive positions is critical to the stability, performance and long-term sustainability of the organisation,” he added.
Hekandjo was advised by Mayumbelo to create a forum in which a solution could be found to appoint strategic executives.
“Your office is hereby kindly requested to facilitate a suitable platform wherein council would formally resolve the executive recruitment matters in order to ensure clarity of direction and way forward of this critical exercise,” Mayumbelo wrote.
When contacted for comment on the matter, Hekandjo responded: “As head of the administration, I am only obliged - in terms of Article 102 of the Namibian Constitution - to execute all lawful resolutions and policies of the council subject to the constitution and any relevant laws”.
This following an instruction last week that Hekandjo must restart the process of recruiting a substantive CEO for the municipality.
The instruction, in a letter date 1 July, came from City management committee chairperson Ndeshihafela Larandja of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC).
The opposition-dominated city council is split on the appointment of a CEO, with IPC in particular charging that last year’s interviews were flawed and the process must thus start afresh.
New mayor Sade Gawanas, of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), last week said she was opposed to the process being restarted.
Amupanda had previously alleged that there was a plot within the opposition alliance at the City to discard the ongoing recruitment process because all the candidates are perceived Swapo members.
Be careful
In communication to Hekandjo, Amupanda wrote: “Without going into detail, I would like to remind you that the chairperson indicated that a meeting will be called to deal with the matter.
“Be careful of being used in corrupt activities. Please take this matter seriously and I would like to place this on record for posterity. I have equally copied this to councillors and executives,” the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) leader warned.
The fact that Gawanas, whom Larandja nominated to become mayor in the last mid-term election, differs with the IPC councillor on this thorny issue points to potential cracks within the alliance.
Namibian Sun understands that AR and Swapo are planning an alliance to topple the current one. The two formations, who have seven seats collectively, would need at least one more councillor from another party to obtain eight seats collectively and be in the majority.
They would then seek to vote for a mayor and management committee members from among themselves - elbowing the current leadership to the periphery.
No succession planning
The ongoing impasse over the filling of the vacant CEO position has been ascribed to poor succession planning at the municipality.
This is according to its incumbent strategic executive for human capital, George Mayumbelo, who cautioned that the current status quo presents a significant risk to the City.
The municipality’s organogram makes provision for 10 strategic executives, however, three of those positions have been vacant for years. Mayumbelo’s will also be vacant later this year when he goes into retirement.
City Police chief Abraham Kanime and the strategic executive for infrastructure and technical services Ludwig Narib are due to bow out next year.
According to Mayumbelo, a series of meetings were held pertaining to succession planning of key positions within the organisation, highlighting the importance of ensuring the timely filling of success-critical positions scheduled to become vacant over a five-year period.
Significant challenge
“This impasse presents a significant challenge as there is no clear direction on the way forward and the finalisation of executive recruitment. Particularly that of the CEO remains in limbo,” he said.
“As you will agree, the finalisation of the appointment of executive positions is critical to the stability, performance and long-term sustainability of the organisation,” he added.
Hekandjo was advised by Mayumbelo to create a forum in which a solution could be found to appoint strategic executives.
“Your office is hereby kindly requested to facilitate a suitable platform wherein council would formally resolve the executive recruitment matters in order to ensure clarity of direction and way forward of this critical exercise,” Mayumbelo wrote.
When contacted for comment on the matter, Hekandjo responded: “As head of the administration, I am only obliged - in terms of Article 102 of the Namibian Constitution - to execute all lawful resolutions and policies of the council subject to the constitution and any relevant laws”.
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