The High Court has overturned the Keetmanshoop Municipal Council’s decision to remove two Landless People’s Movement (LPM) management committee members through votes of no confidence, ruling that the process was unlawful and ordering their reinstatement.
In a judgment delivered on 3 July, the court found that council meetings held on 7 May and 4 June were convened in breach of the Local Authorities Act, the council’s standing rules and Article 18 of the Namibian Constitution. As a result, all resolutions adopted during those meetings were declared unlawful, null and void.
The applicants, Easter Isaack and Annelize Knaus from the LPM, had challenged the legality of the meetings after they were removed from the management committee through motions of no confidence.
The court ruled that the motion and subsequent vote of no confidence failed to comply with the council’s standing rules and were, therefore, invalid from the outset. It also reviewed and set aside all decisions taken to implement the removals, including the swearing-in of replacement management committee members.
The two councillors have now been restored to their positions on the Keetmanshoop Municipal Council’s management committee.
“The municipality is ordered to pay the applicants’ legal costs, including attorney-and-own-client costs for the urgent application and party-and-party costs for the review application,” reads the court order.
