NATIONAL Housing Enterprise (NHE) boss Vinson Hailulu has started legal action against the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

The NHE boss is suing the ACC, the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), the Namibia Financial Institutions Union (Nafinu) and the heads of these organisations. He filed the papers last Wednesday.

In a statement issued by his legal team yesterday, Hailulu charges that the move comes after "concerted, unrelenting, unwavering and unwarranted vilification, persecution and defamation".

The ACC arrested Hailulu at his office in November, after a year-long investigation into corruption charges initiated by the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) and a group of retrenched employees.

He won a legal victory over the group in February, when High Court Acting Judge Johan Swanepoel granted him his application to have the charges reviewed and his arrest nullified.

The charges included that he allegedly used NHE resources to conduct private business, used the NHE's credit card for personal expenses, and that he unprocedurally appointed or promoted staff members.

Hailulu claimed that the charges were part of a plot to oust him from the NHE by what he called an "unholy alliance" between the NUNW and the retrenched employees.

Nafinu also supported the former workers during their drawn-out battle with Hailulu, and earlier this year criticised the NHE for not suspending the CEO after his arrest.