Bid to stop NHE chief appointment fails

SENIOR National Housing Enterprise manager Uazuva Kaumbi heard in the Labour Court in Windhoek yesterday that his attempt to halt the appointment of a new chief executive of cer for the parastatal has failed.

In an order read out by Acting Judge Leezhel van Wyk, the court dismissed Kaumbi’s application to have the appointment of Okahao Town Council chief executive of cer Gisbertus Mukulu as the new CEO of the NHE put on hold until a dispute that he has lodged at the Office of the Labour Commissioner had been dealt with.

Acting Judge Van Wyk did not order Kaumbi to pay the legal costs of his opponents in the matter.

Before announcing her order, she said her judgement with reasons for her decision would be made available to the parties in the matter today.

Kaumbi sued the NHE, Mukulu and the minister of urban and rural development over a decision of the NHE’s board of directors not to include current employees of the parastatal on a shortlist of candidates who were considered to fill the CEO position at the parastatal.

With Kaumbi and other prospective internal candidates at the NHE excluded from being considered for appointment as CEO, the NHE announced at the start of June that Mukulu had been appointed in the top job at the parastatal for a five-year term, with effect from 1 July.

The announcement was made on the same day that a formal complaint by Kaumbi against the NHE was led at the Office of the Labour Commissioner.

The complaint is also about the exclusion of NHE employees from being considered for appoint- ment as CEO of the parastatal.

In an affidavit led at the Labour Court, Kaumbi alleged that the NHE’s decision not to shortlist and interview internal candidates for the CEO position constitutes an unfair labour practice and a unilateral alteration of his conditions of employment. “[I]t deprives me of the opportunity to advance in the organisation,”

Kaumbi also said. “The decision is unreasonable and unfair as it was made without any facts relating to my work perfor-mance and qualifications,”he further stated in his affidavit.

“I was deprived of the opportunity to compete for the position by the board, on the basis of assumptions and speculations, without being afforded the opportunity to answer any possible complaints relating to my performance. The board clearly approached the matter with a closed mind and adhered to a fixed principle.”

Kaumbi is the NHE’s senior manager for technical services and property management at this stage. In that position, his responsibilities have included the implementation of Namibia’s multibillion-dollar mass housing programme in recent years.