The divided municipal council of the Grootfontein municipality on Monday took a decision at its council meeting to challenge a High Court decision made on Friday.
This is according to council sources.
The High Court in Windhoek on Friday ordered the municipality to reinstate its suspended chief executive officer (CEO), Kisco Sinvula.
Sinvula was suspended in March last year on allegations of misconduct.
In an order issued on Friday, the court reviewed and set aside the Grootfontein municipality’s decision to suspend Sinvula from his position.
The court also ordered the municipality to pay Sinvula’s legal costs in the legal action he took following the decision to suspend him.
The court’s decision was not taken lightly by Grootfontein mayor Talitha Garises and three other opposition councillors.
The Namibian has been informed that the council also resolved to charge acting CEO Indileni Lungameni for allegedly telling the court he was not mandated by the council to represent it in the High Court on Friday.
Some council sources believe Lungameni took a wise decision by saying he did not represent the council in court, since there was no council resolution saying he should attend as acting CEO.
A group of Swapo councillors, who are said to be siding Sinvula, objected to the council’s decision to appeal the case, saying the process is costly and the municipality does not have a strong case against Sinvula, who faces 30 charges.
Some Swapo councillors allegedly walked out of the meeting after the mayor announced the council wishes to appeal the case and charge Lungameni.
“The mayor is destroying Swapo and its government. There is a legal opinion from a lawyer that represented the council in the matter that the council did not have a case, but the mayor and her group went ahead,” a source said.
The source claimed the lawyer withdrew from the case before it ended up in court.
Another source told The Namibian that Garises yesterday said: “I will not work with you.”
The Namibian was referred to the chairperson of the management committee, Alfeus Nghikevali, and Garises when contacting Sinvula’s office yesterday as Sinvula was said not to be at the office.
However, Nghikevali said Garises is the right person to comment on the matter.
Garises did not answer calls and text messages sent to her mobile phone, while Lungameni hung up when introduced to the reporter.
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