Suspended Kandara cops reinstated

THE last members of the Namibian Police’s Serious Crime Unit to have remained on suspension over the gunshot death of the late Lazarus Kandara have been reinstated in their posts.

The officers received letters informing them of their reinstatement on Wednesday last week, a Police spokesperson, Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu, said on Friday. However, they will still be facing a disciplinary hearing in connection with Kandara’s death in Police custody, Amulungu added.A disciplinary hearing in that regard, which had been set to take place today, has been rescheduled for January 10, he said.The officers who were reinstated last week are Sergeants Linekela Hilundwa and Jacky Kantema, and Constable Chaolin Justy Tjitemisa.Their reinstatement came a week after the High Court issued an order overturning the suspension of the commanding officer of the Serious Crime Unit, Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Sheehama, who had been suspended from his post together with the three other officers on September 13.The Inspector-General of Police, Lieutenant-General Sebastian Ndeitunga, ordered their suspension after he received a report on an internal investigation that the Police’s Complaints and Discipline Division had carried out into the circumstances of Kandara’s death.Kandara, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Avid Investment Corporation, died from a gunshot wound to the chest in front of the Windhoek Police Station on the evening of August 24.It happened a little over four hours after he was arrested on charges related to his asset management company’s failure to repay an investment of N$30 million that the Social Security Commission had placed with Avid for a four-month period in late January.According to the Police, he shot himself with a 9 mm pistol that he somehow managed to get hold of when three Police officers – Hilundwa, Kantema and Tjitemisa – escorted him to his home in Windhoek so that he could collect some medication, bedding and a change of clothes after his arrest.Sheehama had delegated the three officers from his Unit to accompany Kandara to his house.All four of the officers were, on Ndeitunga’s orders, suspended with effect from September 13.In the Inspector General’s words, that was “for gross negligence in the execution of Police duties for having failed to prevent the suspect from getting hold of a fire-arm which was used to commit suicide”.Sheehama challenged that decision through an urgent application that he brought in the High Court, and won that round against the Inspector General when Judge Annel Silungwe ruled that he should be reinstated.The reasons for the Judge’s ruling became available only last week.They indicate that Hilundwa, Kantema and Tjitemisa might have stood a good chance to successfully attack the Inspector General’s decision to suspend them if they chose to challenge that step in court.Judge Silungwe ruled that the failure to give Sheehama an opportunity to be heard before the decision to suspend him was taken, was fatal to the Inspector General’s case.The Judge noted that the Police Act requires that the Inspector-General should give a Police officer who is facing suspension a hearing at least seven days before the suspension to give the officer an opportunity to give reasons why he or she should not be suspended.Such a chance to be heard before being suspended may only be done away with where it is in the interests of the Police force that a member of the Police be suspended immediately, the law also states.Sheehama’s suspension, which took place almost twenty days after Kandara’s death, could not be said to have been an immediate suspension which would allow the Inspector General not to have given him a hearing first, the Judge ruled.”If there is time for the Inspector General to wait that long (20 days) in order to carry out preliminary investigations or further investigations, then there should be time enough to conduct a hearing at which the member affected should be accorded an opportunity to make representations as to why he or she should not be suspended,” Judge Silungwe stated in his judgement on Sheehama’s case against the Inspector General.The Judge described Ndeitunga’s decision to suspend Sheehama without a prior hearing as “patently fatal”, and as “to all intents and purposes, nothing less then an empty shell”.While the Police’s internal investigation started off on the premise that Kandara’s death had been suicide and also arrived at that same conclusion, an inquest court will still have to make a separate finding on what caused his death.No date has been set yet for that to be done.However, they will still be facing a disciplinary hearing in connection with Kandara’s death in Police custody, Amulungu added.A disciplinary hearing in that regard, which had been set to take place today, has been rescheduled for January 10, he said.The officers who were reinstated last week are Sergeants Linekela Hilundwa and Jacky Kantema, and Constable Chaolin Justy Tjitemisa.Their reinstatement came a week after the High Court issued an order overturning the suspension of the commanding officer of the Serious Crime Unit, Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Sheehama, who had been suspended from his post together with the three other officers on September 13.The Inspector-General of Police, Lieutenant-General Sebastian Ndeitunga, ordered their suspension after he received a report on an internal investigation that the Police’s Complaints and Discipline Division had carried out into the circumstances of Kandara’s death.Kandara, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Avid Investment Corporation, died from a gunshot wound to the chest in front of the Windhoek Police Station on the evening of August 24.It happened a little over four hours after he was arrested on charges related to his asset management company’s failure to repay an investment of N$30 million that the Social Security Commission had placed with Avid for a four-month period in late January.According to the Police, he shot himself with a 9 mm pistol that he somehow managed to get hold of when three Police officers – Hilundwa, Kantema and Tjitemisa – escorted him to his home in Windhoek so that he could collect some medication, bedding and a change of clothes after his arrest.Sheehama had delegated the three officers from his Unit to accompany Kandara to his house.All four of the officers were, on Ndeitunga’s orders, suspended with effect from September 13.In the Inspector General’s words, that was “for gross negligence in the execution of Police duties for having failed to prevent the suspect from getting hold of a fire-arm which was used to commit suicide”.Sheehama challenged that decision through an urgent application that he brought in the High Court, and won that round against the Inspector General when Judge Annel Silungwe ruled that he should be reinstated.The reasons for the Judge’s ruling became available only last week.They indicate that Hilundwa, Kantema and Tjitemisa might have stood a good chance to successfully attack the Inspector General’s decision to suspend them if they chose to challenge that step in court.Judge Silungwe ruled that the failure to give Sheehama an opportunity to be heard before the decision to suspend him was taken, was fatal to the Inspector General’s case.The Judge noted that the Police Act requires that the Inspector-General should give a Police officer who is facing suspension a hearing at least seven days before the suspension to give the officer an opportunity to give reasons why he or she should not be suspended.Such a chance to be heard before being suspended may only be done away with where it is in the interests of the Police force that a member of the Police be suspended immediately, the law also states.Sheehama’s suspension, which took place almost twenty days after Kandara’s death, could not be said to have been an immediate suspension which would allow the Inspector General not to have given him a hearing first, the Judge ruled.”If there is time for the Inspector General to wait that long (20 days) in order to carry out preliminary investigations or further in
vestigations, then there should be time enough to conduct a hearing at which the member affected should be accorded an opportunity to make representations as to why he or she should not be suspended,” Judge Silungwe stated in his judgement on Sheehama’s case against the Inspector General.The Judge described Ndeitunga’s decision to suspend Sheehama without a prior hearing as “patently fatal”, and as “to all intents and purposes, nothing less then an empty shell”.While the Police’s internal investigation started off on the premise that Kandara’s death had been suicide and also arrived at that same conclusion, an inquest court will still have to make a separate finding on what caused his death.No date has been set yet for that to be done.