Christof Maletsky
31 October 2008
TRANSNAMIB management has spent most of the past two days running around trying to finalise charges against its suspended CEO Titus Haimbili.
The company sent Haimbili home two months ago but has yet to come up with disciplinary charges against him.
He is due back at work on Monday, as the suspension only lasted until today.
Yesterday, like on Wednesday, the company was still in the dark over what would become of the case.
The Namibian on Wednesday sent a set of questions to the company's Chief of Corporate Communication, Aily Hangula-Paulino, but she said the management was still consulting.
"You might get the answers tomorrow [today]," she said.
Auditors Ernst & Young were investigating the alleged irregularities levelled against Haimbili.
The board gave Haimbili "special leave" for two months so that they can investigate alleged issues raised with them related to corporate governance.
Sources said the board was alerted to some of the appointments made by TransNamib.
However, indications were that the company's recent decision not to extend the contract of Matty Hauuanga (General Manager Engineering) might also have something to do with Haimbili's suspension.
However, some said Hauuanga was encouraged to reapply for the position after advertisements were placed to declare that the post was vacant.
Haimbili's suspension was partly responsible for the strike at TransNamib which cost them around N$52 million.
Government gave them N$14 million and directed them to the Development Bank of Namibia which, this week, injected a further N$14,2 million into the transport parastatal after local banks stopped a credit facility because of Haimbili's suspension.
Earlier, acting CEO Mike Kavekotora confirmed that they approached Government for a bailout of N$52 million.
TransNamib was unproductive for a week after workers, led by the National Union for Namibian Workers (NUNW) and the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Natau), downed tools in response to the board's suspension of Haimbili.
The strike crippled the country's transport industry, with TransNamib saying in a court affidavit that it was losing N$5 million a day.
The strike also negatively affected workers' salaries.
Last month Haimbili approached the District Labour Court in an attempt to appeal his suspension, but had his application thrown out after the court found it had no jurisdiction in the matter.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Namibian. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
