TransNamib GM ‘stripped bare’ in e-mail exposé

A WITCH-HUNT has started at TransNamib after a letter detailing the private dealings of a senior manager was circulated among employees this week.

At the centre of the storm is a letter with some documentary evidence on how TransNamib’s Human Resource General Manager, Jason Hamunyela, used company property to do private consultancy work and how he increased his salary by 43 per cent. Hamunyela’s invoices to the Roads Contractor Company for around N$22 000 for consultancy work were attached to a series of letters and documents distributed to staff on Monday morning.He did a survey for the RCC on the Chief Executive Officer’s salary package.In another case, Hamunyela conducted a disciplinary hearing for the Namibia Tourism Board on behalf of Preferred Labour Solutions (PLS) and used his work computer to bill them.A PLS document found on Hamunyela’s computer, indicates he had “a strategic working relationship” with the company.Two key members of PLS are former union leader Sackey Aipinge, the Managing Director, and South African lawyer Bradley Conradie.A stunned TransNamib top management has been hard at work since Monday trying to establish who accessed the computers of Hamunyela and Chief Executive Officer John Shaetonhodi to get the information and forward it to the rest of the staff.The company’s public relations officer, Olivia Kanyemba, confirmed that they were investigating the source of the leak and how the information had got out to the rest of the staff.”We are busy investigating all this.We will make the information available when we get all the facts right,” she told The Namibian.Hamunyela said he would reserve his comments until later.According to the documents, Hamunyela increased his own salary from N$226 260 a year to N$324 240 in June 2004 – an increase of N$97 980 or 43,3 per cent.Last week TransNamib told employees, through their union, that the company was unable to meet their salary demands.The employees want increases of between 10 per cent and 11 per cent but the company was offering between three and four per cent.The circulated document demanded that Hamunyela be charged with breach of trust, fraud and disobedience – the same charges that saw former security chief Cletius Sipapela fired.”How can the company you are working for trust you when you are stealing the company’s time and resources to run a full-fledged business while on their payroll? Specifically a management position,” the memo attached to the documents asked.Apart from complaining about Hamunyela’s activities, the document also revealed that Shaetonhodi was one of the highest earners in the country with a basic salary of N$785 068 a year – that is more than N$65 400 a month.His total package amounts to N$1 152 060, or N$96 000 a month, according to the document.Hamunyela’s invoices to the Roads Contractor Company for around N$22 000 for consultancy work were attached to a series of letters and documents distributed to staff on Monday morning.He did a survey for the RCC on the Chief Executive Officer’s salary package.In another case, Hamunyela conducted a disciplinary hearing for the Namibia Tourism Board on behalf of Preferred Labour Solutions (PLS) and used his work computer to bill them.A PLS document found on Hamunyela’s computer, indicates he had “a strategic working relationship” with the company.Two key members of PLS are former union leader Sackey Aipinge, the Managing Director, and South African lawyer Bradley Conradie.A stunned TransNamib top management has been hard at work since Monday trying to establish who accessed the computers of Hamunyela and Chief Executive Officer John Shaetonhodi to get the information and forward it to the rest of the staff.The company’s public relations officer, Olivia Kanyemba, confirmed that they were investigating the source of the leak and how the information had got out to the rest of the staff.”We are busy investigating all this.We will make the information available when we get all the facts right,” she told The Namibian.Hamunyela said he would reserve his comments until later.According to the documents, Hamunyela increased his own salary from N$226 260 a year to N$324 240 in June 2004 – an increase of N$97 980 or 43,3 per cent.Last week TransNamib told employees, through their union, that the company was unable to meet their salary demands.The employees want increases of between 10 per cent and 11 per cent but the company was offering between three and four per cent.The circulated document demanded that Hamunyela be charged with breach of trust, fraud and disobedience – the same charges that saw former security chief Cletius Sipapela fired.”How can the company you are working for trust you when you are stealing the company’s time and resources to run a full-fledged business while on their payroll? Specifically a management position,” the memo attached to the documents asked.Apart from complaining about Hamunyela’s activities, the document also revealed that Shaetonhodi was one of the highest earners in the country with a basic salary of N$785 068 a year – that is more than N$65 400 a month.His total package amounts to N$1 152 060, or N$96 000 a month, according to the document.