Council reverses staff appointments

THE Keetmanshoop Town Council on Tuesday unanimously passed a motion revoking recent staff appointments endorsed by the previous council.

A well-placed source said mayor Moses Titus proposed the motion. Approached for comment, Titus described the staff appointments in question as ‘wrongful and malicious’.He said the previous council had endorsed the appointments last August in violation of legislation that gives the council’s management committee the mandate to appoint staff. The appointments filled the posts of strategic executive: local economic development, accountant, tourism officer, and strategic executive: infrastructure and technical services. Among the candidates who accepted the appointments were Josef Rooi and Nimrod Swartz, who had held senior positions in the council prior to the appointments. According to Titus, the council’s management committee would decide at its next meeting to re-advertise the positions or to appoint candidates that were shortlisted for the position. Titus said the council also instructed its management committee to decide on the pending labour court case involving its CEO Paul Vleermuis. Following his suspension in August last year, Vleermuis decided to fight the matter in the Labour Court. However, he was reinstated at the end of last month despite the pending court case.Alleged poor performance, an N$9 000 procurement deal that went sour and a N$1 million bank transfer were given as reasons for Vleermuis’s suspension. At Tuesday’s meeting the council also decided to dissolve a tender board appointed by the previous council last year. ‘This [appointment of tender board] was done in violation of the Tender Board Regulation 3 (4),’ said Titus.