TransNamib’s Haimbili still in limbo

NO date has been set yet for the disciplinary hearing of suspended TransNamib CEO Titus Haimbili.

The Namibian understands that lawyers for TransNamib and Haimbili are still negotiating on the date for the hearing that will decide the fate of the suspended CEO.
Haimbili’s fate will have a far-reaching effect on the future of several other top managers at the company whom he had appointed along with General Manager for Human Resources Albertus !Naruseb.
When Haimbili was suspended the Board of TransNamib alleged that he did not follow the right procedures in appointing !Naruseb.
The allegation was also that Haimbili appointed !Naruseb because he was his wife’s brother. Haimbili denied the allegation.
!Naruseb was part of a group of five new key staff members Haimbili had appointed.
Others were the General Manager for Finance, the Company Legal Advisor, the General Manager for Marketing and the Chief of Corporate Communication.
With the TransNamib Board questioning Haimbili’s powers to appoint, doubt was cast on the appointments of the other four staff members, including current acting CEO Mike Kavekotora, who is the GM Marketing .
Haimbili was served with the charges after Ernst & Young conducted an investigation and is on full pay for the duration of the suspension.
When he approached the Labour Court in September last year to contest his suspension, Haimbili claimed that there were ulterior motives behind his suspension, as board chairperson Festus Lameck had also applied for the CEO position but did not get it; wanted to protect the interests of former General Manager for Engineering Matty Hauuanga whose contract was about to expire; and also intended to stifle an investigation Haimbili had started into the purchase of locomotives from China.
‘I had just instructed a delegation of management to revisit the purchase of Chinese locomotives. The preliminary indications are that there are serious shortcomings with this transaction. Matty Hauuanga was a key player in this transaction and may be implicated,’ Haimbili wrote in his affidavit.
The Namibian has it on good authority that Haimbili’s investigation was about to reveal a cesspool of alleged corruption and kickbacks linked to the locomotive deal made by the previous TransNamib management.
Among the allegations was that electric appliances such as fridges, given by the Chinese companies as kickbacks, were smuggled into Namibia with the locomotives without official clearance at Walvis Bay harbour.
Also, the real value of the locomotives has apparently not been revealed, with some money allegedly changing hands without the company’s knowledge.