HISTORY has been made at TransNamib with the appointment of the first woman to run the affairs of the transport company.

Eugenia Taylor-Tjaronda, TransNamib's Company Secretary, has been appointed as the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as from Monday and will lead the company until a suitable candidate is found.

The position of the CEO and those of the general managers of human resources and properties have been advertised.

Taylor-Tjaronda, who took over as acting CEO from TransNamib's General Manager of Finance, Noel Mouton, told The Namibian that there is a long list of important matters to address.

"Issues will be prioritised as soon as possible after final handover from the previous acting CEO."

She said TransNamib Holdings Ltd is currently realigning and re-engineering its processes to attain efficiencies and effectiveness in its operations.

"Due to a shortage of incumbents at senior management level, urgent structural changes were required at executive level to put the company on course to reach its objectives. Dedicated focus from the respective heads of department is required, especially in the finance department," Taylor-Tjaronda said.

Taylor-Tjaronda has a BA LLB degree and started at TransNamib as Company Secretary on November 15 2010 and also acted as the link between the management and the board. She was previously employed as Manager: Risk, Compliance & Legal at Sanlam.

The closing date for applications for the CEO position at TransNamib is on June 29, the same date that the dismissed CEO of the company, Titus Haimbili, will have a conciliation meeting at the Office of the Labour Commissioner on his alleged unfair dismissal.

"If we cannot reach an agreement we will go for arbitration which would be likely two to three weeks after the conciliation," Haimbili's legal representatives told The Namibian.