‘Expelled’ Swapo members sue //Kharas council

Three Swapo regional councillors have filed an urgent application against the //Kharas Regional Council in the Windhoek High Court.

This follows a decision to terminate their council membership and stop the payment of their salaries.

Regional councillors Lasarus Nangolo, Suzan Ndjaleka and Taimi Amakali and Swapo itself are asking the High Court to order the //Kharas Regional Council, its chairperson, Joseph Isaacks, and the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) not to implement a decision to remove them from the council and stop the payment of their salaries as councillors.

The three councillors and Swapo are also asking the court to declare that Isaacks is in contempt of court and to sentence him over his alleged failure to obey a court order issued in February this year.

In terms of that court order, the //Kharas Regional Council and Isaacks were directed not to implement a decision, taken on 25 January this year, to remove Nangolo, Ndjaleka and Amakali from the council and stop the payment of their salaries.

Nangolo was first elected as regional councillor for the Oranjemund constituency in 2015. Ndjaleka has been representing the !Nami≠Nüs constituency and Amakali has been representing the Karasburg West constituency in the //Kharas Regional Council since the 2020 regional election.

The LPM became the majority party in the council after the 2020 regional election, when LPM candidates were elected in four of the region’s seven constituencies.

After three LPM regional councillors were chosen to represent the //Kharas region in the National Council, the three Swapo councillors refused to accept nominations to be elected as members of the regional council’s management committee.

This has left the regional council without a functioning management committee.

In a sworn statement filed at the High Court yesterday, Nangolo says an urgent application that he, Ndjaleka, Amakali and Swapo filed against the //Kharas Regional Council, the council’s chairperson and the LPM near the start of February this year, after the LPM members of the council decided to remove him, Ndjaleka and Amakali from the council, was partly settled.

The terms of the settlement were then recorded in an order issued by judge Orben Sibeya.

Nangolo says in his affidavit that he, Ndjaleka and Amakali were informed on Tuesday last week that Isaacks had given instructions that their salaries should not be paid at the end of July, as the regional council’s decision, taken in January, to terminate their membership of the council and stop their salaries was still valid.

Nangolo is alleging that Isaacks’ instruction defies the court order issued in February.

Nangolo also says in his affidavit that in letters Isaacks addressed to him, Ndjaleka and Amakali on Friday last week, they were informed that the //Kharas Regional Council’s decision to terminate their membership of the council with effect from 25 January this year is being implemented.

According to Nangolo, it appears that Isaacks has acted on his own, without any lawful decision of the council that the three Swapo councillors’ salaries should not be paid at the end of July.

The four applicants gave the regional council, Isaacks and the LPM time until Thursday this week to file answering affidavits at the court.

The urgent application is scheduled to be heard on 16 August.