THE appointment of Connie Bock as acting village secretary at Kalkrand was noted as a ‘mere relief’ by the Ministry of Regional Government and Housing because there was no-one else in the council to act in the position of suspended village CEO Neville Smith.
This was the explanation given by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Erastus Negonga of the controversial appointment of Bock yesterday. According to the Local Authority Act, a local council cannot appoint someone from outside the structures of the council. This was made clear by Minister Jerry Ekandjo in a letter to the Kalkrand village council on August 18. But in a letter to the village council on September 8, Negonga said the Ministry would accept Bock’s appointment on the condition that it is only for three months, during which the Ministry will pay Bock N$6 000 per month. Negonga, in his letter, pointed out that the village council should quickly conclude its disciplinary case against Smith. ‘It is not contrary to Minister Ekandjo’s letter,’ he maintained, saying the council claimed that there was no-one in council that could be appointed to act in the CEO’s position since there were only two staff – Smith and administrator Annemarie van Rooi – who ‘are under investigation’. Swapo Party councillor and chairperson of the management committee Adriaan ‘Adidas’ Beukes yesterday said charges against Smith have not yet been formulated, and responded that it was not the newspaper’s ‘problem’ to know whether the council would expedite the disciplinary action envisaged against Smith. Smith’s first and second suspension came two months apart and short on the heels of a charge of theft he [Smith] reported to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). This suspension, said sources, was effected by the three Swapo Party councillors at the village without consulting the two Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) councillors Rebecca van Standen and Hermien van Wyk. ACC director Paulus Noa said on Tuesday that this theft charge is still under investigation. This charge involves a cheque of N$68 000 allegedly used to buy 110 millimetre sewerage pipes from Forbes Investments in Mariental. The cheque – which allegedly left council as a blank cheque – and was reportedly taken to Mariental by human resource officer Marthinus Nainkavara and chairperson Beukes upon the request of technical foreman Kornelius Mbangula. The purchase of sewerage pipes was allegedly made without the knowledge of CEO Smith, and done at Forbes Investment with which the village council does not have a supply tender with. Sources told The Namibian that the village council has a supply tender with Tube-O-Flex, where someone attached to Forbes Investments is working. Some of the sewerage pipes, the sources claimed, were stacked behind the office of the village council, with council workers claiming they last laid pipes last year. Residents demonstrated against acting CEO Bock’s appointment on August 22, and handed over a petition to Beukes and constituency councillor Adriaan McNab. The demonstrators demanded that the petition, which also refers to the N$68 000 cheque and Smith’s suspension, be handed over to Minister Ekandjo, Hardap Governor Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, and PS Negonga. Community activist James Hansen also wrote a letter to Minister Ekandjo on August 23 demanding that the Minister intervene with Bock’s appointment and Smith’s suspension. Hansen warned that the allegation levelled against Smith should be ‘handled with care as it is fragile and can cause damages of millions of taxpayers’ money if it falls off [the] table’.
