Ekandjo ‘behind Pietertjie’s removal’

JERRY Ekandjo, the Minister of Regional and Local Government, was allegedly behind the removal of Pietertjie Pieters as the Rehoboth mayor.

It is understood that Ekandjo wrote a letter to the Rehoboth Town Council ordering that Pieters should get his marching orders – not only as first citizen but also as council member.This revelation comes in the wake of a denial by Swapo Deputy Secretary General Nangolo Mbumba that the party’s leadership had anything to do with Pieters’s removal.On Thursday, Mbumba, also the Minister of Safety and Security, told The Namibian that whoever fired Pieters ‘did not have the sanctioning of the national leadership’.Party Secretary General and the Minister of Justice, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, equally denied that she knew what led to Pieters’s removal. According to Mbumba, neither the district party leadership nor the councillors approached the party leadership about the Pieters saga. ‘They took action on their own.’He added that the party leadership intends to demand answers from them.Upon enquiry, Ekandjo yesterday said he was attending a funeral. He said he would be back in the office today and would then respond to written questions.About 100 Rehoboth residents marched to the municipality’s offices on Wednesday, demanding Pieters’s reinstatement from Theo Jankowski, the town’s chief executive officer.After the march, Jankowski said he had repeatedly informed the group that his office had nothing to do with Pieters’s sacking and that their ‘ill-advised hostility’ was misdirected. ‘The election or removal or Mr Pieters as a mayor has nothing to do with council as an institution or myself as the CEO.’ In fact, Swapo makes those decisions, Jankowski said.A meeting was scheduled for yesterday afternoon at the town to shed more light on the Pieters drama.Ekandjo last year also ordered that Khorixas councillors implicated in a corrupt scam needed to be acted against. He had denied any involvement despite insider information to the contrary.