Omaruru — THE Omaruru town council is sticking to its guns on the appointment of Edward Ganaseb as the town's new CEO, despite Regional and Local Government Minister Jerry Ekandjo's judgement that the appointment was illegal.

Ekandjo said the council did not follow the Local Authorities (LA) Act with regard to the appointment.

The minister told the council that it should appoint Jeremiah Kavaa instead.

Omaruru deputy mayor Albertus !Naruseb acknowledged receipt of a letter to this effect from Ekandjo. The council met on Tuesday to respond to the letter.

"We sent a letter back to the minister to inform him that we remain confident in our appointment of Ganaseb and that the council's resolution regarding his appointment remains in force. We did follow the right process and we did consult with [Ekandjo]," said !Naruseb.

After the CEO post was re-advertised due to confidential information about the selection panel being leaked after the first advertisement in November last year, the three top-scoring candidates were Jeremiah Kavaa (73 points), Verikenda Rukoro (69 points) and Ganaseb (64 points). The selection panel recommended that the first two be interviewed for the final decision.

According to !Naruseb, as well as deputy chairperson Kretensia Garises and councillor Christiaan Nanuseb, a "similar scenario" happened with the appointment of former CEO Werner Iita. He was also the third best scorer and yet got the job as Omaruru's CEO then.

"There's never been this problem. We rather want a good relationship between us and the minister," said Naruseb.

According to them there were questions regarding the scores of the top three candidates, and the council did not only consider the score when making the appointment.

Ekandjo could not be reached for comment, but The Namibian understands that there could be a meeting between him and the town council this week.