A shop stewards' meeting yesterday morning also demanded that the new board be fired with immediate effect.

The President of the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Natau), Dawid Tjombe, said they would go on a national strike if no action was taken by Thursday.

The workers accused the new board under Festus Lameck of acting hastily without checking all information and claimed there was a conflict of interest.

"The Board is naïve to suspend the CEO.

When did they conduct an investigation? They came in with their own agenda to jeopardise operations.

"We know that the chairperson of the board [Lameck] had applied for the job and was not even listed for the interview," claimed Natau General Secretary John Kwedhi.

When approached by The Namibian, Lameck refused to comment on the Natau statements.

"The union can write whatever they want," he said.

After its first sitting, the new board of Trans-Namib announced on Thursday that they had sent Haimbili home for two months over alleged concerns about corporate governance.

"The special leave was granted in order to institute an investigation to clear alleged issues raised with the board related to corporate governance of the company.

"It is envisaged that the process will be concluded in the shortest possible period.

No longer than two months," Chief of Corporate Communication Aily Hangula-Paulino said.

Well-placed sources said Haimbili, only six months in the position, was given "special leave" over alleged irregular appointments.

Tjombe demanded that the Board publicly reveal the allegations being investigated against Haimbili and that the workers' union be represented on the investigation team.

He said workers were inspired by the progress the company had made during Haimbili's first six months and believed that it was yet another case of a TransNamib chairperson attempting to run the company in an acting CEO capacity, as had happened in the past.

"We are not threatening the management and Government, but we want to rescue Trans-Namib.

We are part of the company's assets," he said.

Kwedhi charged that personal or hidden agendas had prevented the company from performing well in the past and the workers had had enough of that.

"How many years must TransNamib turn around? It is turn around [this] and turn around [that] all the time.

Now it is actually turn down and not turnaround.

We know TransNamib in and out.

Clearly there is conflict of interest here," he said.

He agreed with Tjombe's allegation that Lameck was out to get the job.

"The chairperson wanted to come in.

Since he did not, the first bullet is to shoot the person who beat him in the interview," Kwedhi claimed.

Tjombe said the company's operations were severely affected in the past since it, at different times, did not have either a CEO or a board.

"Now that we have both, we need to move on.

The workers and the union have decided to focus on business.

We want to work towards development of the company and the country," he said.

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