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N$83 000 a month ‘modest’ Says ex-Agribank CEO as labour case wraps up

N$83 000 a month ‘modest’ Says ex-Agribank CEO as labour case wraps up

THE monthly salary of more than N$83 000 that Tjeripo Hijarunguru received when he was the Chief Executive Officer of the Agricultural Bank of Namibia was “moderate”, Hijarunguru declared in the Windhoek District Labour Court on Friday.

He considered that salary – N$83 768 a month, to be exact – to be “mid-range” and “moderate”, Hijarunguru said in support of a wrongful dismissal claim he has launched against Agribank. His claim, which had started off with him demanding to be paid N$6,136 million as compensation for allegedly being unfairly dismissed by the parastatal, was further reduced to N$313 000 – only about five per cent of its original size – on Friday.The previous day, the claim had been reduced to N$498 000, only to be pushed up to N$996 000 again halfway through the day’s proceedings.Hijarunguru, who in January 2004 was forced to leave the office he had occupied since 1997, had based his initial claim upon his expectations that he would be re-appointed as Agribank CEO under a five-year contract in January 2004.His legal counsel claimed he had a “justified, legitimate expectation” to be re-appointed as result of several short-term extensions of his contract, made to allow time for the formal recruitment of a new Agribank CEO.The amended N$313 000 claim is based on the difference between Hijarunguru’s current pay of N$75 000 a month as a director for business planning with the Ohlthaver & List group and the salary that he would have been receiving as Agribank CEO for the eight months during which two other acting CEOs were appointed at Agribank before Leonard Iipimbu was formally appointed to the post at the end of 2004.Ironically, as a result of better tax advice Hijarunguru currently pockets a larger portion of his pay as an O&L director than he did while he was Agribank CEO, it emerged on Friday.POLITICAL MEDDLING The hearing before Magistrate Clement Daniels also brought to light several instances of high-level political interference in the workings of the bank which eventually led to the resignation of the entire Board in August 2004 in protest against especially Finance Minister Sarah Kuugongelwa-Amadhila’s persistent usurping of the board’s statutory role.Initially appointed for five years by former President Sam Nujoma as Managing Director and chairman, Hijarunguru’s CEO position became technically vacant after the passing of the new Agribank Act of 2003.The new law put the responsibility of appointing the top official – with the concurrence of the Agriculture and Finance Ministers – in the hands of the Board of Directors, chaired at that stage by veteran Rehoboth doctor and farmer Dr Franz Stellmacher.After temporarily extending Hijarunguru’s contract for several six-month periods after his initial contract ran out in 2002 – while making it clear each time that this in no way implied future obligations in this respect – the board under Stellmacher by end 2003 had proposed three possible candidates to the two Ministers, Stellmacher testified on Thursday.An earlier process to recruit a CEO had to be abandoned after the Finance Minister objected to a South African executive recruitment firm being involved in the process and local agency Jobs Unlimited was appointed instead, the court heard.Stellmacher testified that he had telephonically contacted Angula and Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, who were both on holiday at the time, in mid-December 2003, and both had verbally agreed to the temporary appointment of a senior Agribank official, George Katjiuongua, as acting CEO, with effect from the end of Hijarunguru’s last extended term as CEO.At the time, a list of three potential candidates the board had sent to the Ministers for their approval did not include Hijarunguru, who was listed at number five out of 10 candidates initially short-listed, Stellmacher said.Stellmacher took Angula and Kuugongelwa’s telephonic concurrence of the Board’s proposals upon their word of honour – but subsequent developments brought to light a somewhat different scenario, as two other acting CEOs were appointed in the following few months, the court heard.Hijarunguru however refused to abide by the terms of his last temporary contract that expired on December 31 2003.He maintained the Board decision was not valid for several technical reasons.CRUNCH TIME But by January 23 2004, he was forced to vacate the office or face physical expulsion from Agribank’s premises, something the Board wanted to avoid, Dr Stellmacher said.By then, Agribank was in dire financial straits as especially non-performing loans issued under the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) caused a liquidity crisis, leading to the freezing of all new loan applications, according to news reports.After Katjiuongua’s short tenure, the current Permanent Secretary of Works, Transport and Communication, Shihaleni Ndjaba, was appointed, only to be replaced by August 2004 by Isak Katali, the current Deputy Minister of Lands and Resettlement.While Ndjaba was a competent CEO, Katali clearly was not equipped for the position, Stellmacher testified.Having refused to accept the three candidates proposed by the board, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and Angula were contradicting each other on the reasons for this stance, and the relationship between them and Agribank’s governing body subsequently broke down completely, and the board was forced to resign.”We were ‘obstinate’, so, because of our ‘arrogance’, we were asked to resign,” Stellmacher testified somewhat tongue-in-cheek under cross-examination by Hijarunguru’s counsel, Christian Mouton.Dave Smuts, representing Agribank on instructions of Dirk Conradie of Conradie & Damaseb, attacked Hijarunguru’s position as “an expectation that became a right somehow”.He demanded to know whether the initial N$6,136 million claim was merely a ruse to try and extract a more favourable settlement from Agribank in the intervening 31 months.Allegations of malice on the part of Dr Stellmacher that Hijarunguru had made in his claim against Agribank was “quite disgraceful”, Smuts argued.He asked for the dismissal of the case, which he termed vexatious and devoid of any merit, and asked for full costs to be awarded against Hijarunguru.Mouton, instructed by Richard Mueller of PF Koep and Co, argued that Hijarunguru had every right to be expected to be appointed again, especially after three other temporary CEOs were appointed to his former position during 2004.Daniels reserved judgement but undertook to give his ruling within 21 days.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587His claim, which had started off with him demanding to be paid N$6,136 million as compensation for allegedly being unfairly dismissed by the parastatal, was further reduced to N$313 000 – only about five per cent of its original size – on Friday.The previous day, the claim had been reduced to N$498 000, only to be pushed up to N$996 000 again halfway through the day’s proceedings.Hijarunguru, who in January 2004 was forced to leave the office he had occupied since 1997, had based his initial claim upon his expectations that he would be re-appointed as Agribank CEO under a five-year contract in January 2004.His legal counsel claimed he had a “justified, legitimate expectation” to be re-appointed as result of several short-term extensions of his contract, made to allow time for the formal recruitment of a new Agribank CEO.The amended N$313 000 claim is based on the difference between Hijarunguru’s current pay of N$75 000 a month as a director for business planning with the Ohlthaver & List group and the salary that he would have been receiving as Agribank CEO for the eight months during which two other acting CEOs were appointed at Agribank before Leonard Iipimbu was formally appointed to the post at the end of 2004. Ironically, as a result of better tax advice Hijarunguru currently pockets a larger portion of his pay as an O&L director than he did while he was Agribank CEO, it emerged on Friday.POLITICAL MEDDLING The hearing before Magistrate Clement Daniels also brought to light several instances of high-level political interference in the workings of the
bank which eventually led to the resignation of the entire Board in August 2004 in protest against especially Finance Minister Sarah Kuugongelwa-Amadhila’s persistent usurping of the board’s statutory role.Initially appointed for five years by former President Sam Nujoma as Managing Director and chairman, Hijarunguru’s CEO position became technically vacant after the passing of the new Agribank Act of 2003.The new law put the responsibility of appointing the top official – with the concurrence of the Agriculture and Finance Ministers – in the hands of the Board of Directors, chaired at that stage by veteran Rehoboth doctor and farmer Dr Franz Stellmacher.After temporarily extending Hijarunguru’s contract for several six-month periods after his initial contract ran out in 2002 – while making it clear each time that this in no way implied future obligations in this respect – the board under Stellmacher by end 2003 had proposed three possible candidates to the two Ministers, Stellmacher testified on Thursday.An earlier process to recruit a CEO had to be abandoned after the Finance Minister objected to a South African executive recruitment firm being involved in the process and local agency Jobs Unlimited was appointed instead, the court heard.Stellmacher testified that he had telephonically contacted Angula and Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, who were both on holiday at the time, in mid-December 2003, and both had verbally agreed to the temporary appointment of a senior Agribank official, George Katjiuongua, as acting CEO, with effect from the end of Hijarunguru’s last extended term as CEO.At the time, a list of three potential candidates the board had sent to the Ministers for their approval did not include Hijarunguru, who was listed at number five out of 10 candidates initially short-listed, Stellmacher said.Stellmacher took Angula and Kuugongelwa’s telephonic concurrence of the Board’s proposals upon their word of honour – but subsequent developments brought to light a somewhat different scenario, as two other acting CEOs were appointed in the following few months, the court heard.Hijarunguru however refused to abide by the terms of his last temporary contract that expired on December 31 2003.He maintained the Board decision was not valid for several technical reasons.CRUNCH TIME But by January 23 2004, he was forced to vacate the office or face physical expulsion from Agribank’s premises, something the Board wanted to avoid, Dr Stellmacher said.By then, Agribank was in dire financial straits as especially non-performing loans issued under the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) caused a liquidity crisis, leading to the freezing of all new loan applications, according to news reports.After Katjiuongua’s short tenure, the current Permanent Secretary of Works, Transport and Communication, Shihaleni Ndjaba, was appointed, only to be replaced by August 2004 by Isak Katali, the current Deputy Minister of Lands and Resettlement.While Ndjaba was a competent CEO, Katali clearly was not equipped for the position, Stellmacher testified.Having refused to accept the three candidates proposed by the board, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and Angula were contradicting each other on the reasons for this stance, and the relationship between them and Agribank’s governing body subsequently broke down completely, and the board was forced to resign.”We were ‘obstinate’, so, because of our ‘arrogance’, we were asked to resign,” Stellmacher testified somewhat tongue-in-cheek under cross-examination by Hijarunguru’s counsel, Christian Mouton.Dave Smuts, representing Agribank on instructions of Dirk Conradie of Conradie & Damaseb, attacked Hijarunguru’s position as “an expectation that became a right somehow”.He demanded to know whether the initial N$6,136 million claim was merely a ruse to try and extract a more favourable settlement from Agribank in the intervening 31 months.Allegations of malice on the part of Dr Stellmacher that Hijarunguru had made in his claim against Agribank was “quite disgraceful”, Smuts argued.He asked for the dismissal of the case, which he termed vexatious and devoid of any merit, and asked for full costs to be awarded against Hijarunguru.Mouton, instructed by Richard Mueller of PF Koep and Co, argued that Hijarunguru had every right to be expected to be appointed again, especially after three other temporary CEOs were appointed to his former position during 2004.Daniels reserved judgement but undertook to give his ruling within 21 days.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587

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