Nghiwete fights NSFAF dismissal
Former CEO of the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) Hilya Nghiwete has filed an urgent application with the High Court to have her dismissal from the fund overturned until the disciplinary procedure against her has reached its final conclusion.
She was dismissed after allegedly having missed a number of disciplinary hearings.
Nghiwete, in her founding affidavit, said her dismissal on 7 February came at a time when she was under psychological and mental distress and when she was undergoing medical therapy and was booked off.
She added that the disciplinary hearing was supposed to proceed upon her return on 12 March.
Nghiwete was suspended on 16 April 2018, which she claims was effected by a board that was unlawfully constituted by higher education minister, Dr Itah Kandjii-Murangi. She said the issue of the appointment of the board and the decision to start a disciplinary process against her are still to be determined in a High Court hearing, set for 7 May.
She said one of the “nasty strategies” of NSFAF in “abruptly and unlawfully” dismissing her is to make that High Court application “moot and academic” as the board has “no good defence”.
Nghiwete said one of the people who were part of the decision-making was Tulimeke Munyika, who she said had no voting right.
Moreover, she accused NSFAF of having delayed the disciplinary process instead, acknowledging that she sought a postponement of the hearing because she was on sick leave. She said it was not NSFAF that was to rule on the legality of her sick certificate, but instead the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing, lawyer Clement Daniels.
Nghiwete further stated that she will suffer irreparable financial harm if her dismissal remains in place.
In its heads of argument, NSFAF stated that Nghiwete cannot premise the urgency of the application on financial hardship she alleges, or on the alleged unfair and unlawful actions of NSFAF.
Nghiwete claimed monthly expenses of N$53 763.82. NSFAF contends that Nghiwete falls within the top one percent of earners as she received a nett salary of about N$2 million after deductions.
It stated that Nghiwete and her legal practitioners from the outset of the disciplinary procedure have been playing a “game of cat and mouse”, which resulted in extensive delays. NSFAF added that the disciplinary hearing was postponed six times, five of which were at the behest of Nghiwete, and that she at one point was booked off for a period of three months on a “vague diagnosis” of the “psychopathological”, which was not accompanied by a medical record.
Nghiwete at this time, during September 2019, accompanied an official delegation of vice-president Nangolo Mbumba to Finland, while claiming to be unable to attend her disciplinary hearing.
The international travel, NSFAF claimed, was also in breach of her suspension conditions, which it said raised the suspicion that she had no real intention to testify at the hearing.
Catherine Sasman
She was dismissed after allegedly having missed a number of disciplinary hearings.
Nghiwete, in her founding affidavit, said her dismissal on 7 February came at a time when she was under psychological and mental distress and when she was undergoing medical therapy and was booked off.
She added that the disciplinary hearing was supposed to proceed upon her return on 12 March.
Nghiwete was suspended on 16 April 2018, which she claims was effected by a board that was unlawfully constituted by higher education minister, Dr Itah Kandjii-Murangi. She said the issue of the appointment of the board and the decision to start a disciplinary process against her are still to be determined in a High Court hearing, set for 7 May.
She said one of the “nasty strategies” of NSFAF in “abruptly and unlawfully” dismissing her is to make that High Court application “moot and academic” as the board has “no good defence”.
Nghiwete said one of the people who were part of the decision-making was Tulimeke Munyika, who she said had no voting right.
Moreover, she accused NSFAF of having delayed the disciplinary process instead, acknowledging that she sought a postponement of the hearing because she was on sick leave. She said it was not NSFAF that was to rule on the legality of her sick certificate, but instead the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing, lawyer Clement Daniels.
Nghiwete further stated that she will suffer irreparable financial harm if her dismissal remains in place.
In its heads of argument, NSFAF stated that Nghiwete cannot premise the urgency of the application on financial hardship she alleges, or on the alleged unfair and unlawful actions of NSFAF.
Nghiwete claimed monthly expenses of N$53 763.82. NSFAF contends that Nghiwete falls within the top one percent of earners as she received a nett salary of about N$2 million after deductions.
It stated that Nghiwete and her legal practitioners from the outset of the disciplinary procedure have been playing a “game of cat and mouse”, which resulted in extensive delays. NSFAF added that the disciplinary hearing was postponed six times, five of which were at the behest of Nghiwete, and that she at one point was booked off for a period of three months on a “vague diagnosis” of the “psychopathological”, which was not accompanied by a medical record.
Nghiwete at this time, during September 2019, accompanied an official delegation of vice-president Nangolo Mbumba to Finland, while claiming to be unable to attend her disciplinary hearing.
The international travel, NSFAF claimed, was also in breach of her suspension conditions, which it said raised the suspicion that she had no real intention to testify at the hearing.
Catherine Sasman
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