Hertta-Maria Amutenja
The City of Windhoek has extended the appointment of Faniel Maanda, as Acting Chief Executive Officer, for a further six months, which appointment is effective 8 March 2023 until September 8 2023, or until a substantive CEO is appointed.
Since the resignation of Robert Kahimise as Chief Executive Officer at the end of October 2020, the Windhoek City has been without a permanent CEO. Kahimise served in the position for four years.
In addition to the absence of a CEO, the city has also not been able to elect a full management committee for over two months until recently. Maanda was appointed acting CEO last year December after Jennifer Comalie acted as from 1 to 6 December 2022 and after Conrad Lutombi, the CEO of the Roads Authority, declined the top job at the municipality.
Political commentator Marius Kudumo said the absence of a substantive affects the city’s operations as the CEO is responsible for managing the municipality’s affairs and implementing council resolutions.
“The CEO of a big city like the City of Windhoek oversees various departments. He or she is responsible for the implementation of council resolutions. Acting persons do not have all the authority and are not sure on whether they should take certain decisions or not. Therefore in the absence of any senior person in any organization, it has an effect on policy implementation an implantation of the decisions. Because the people acting are not sure whether they have to make those decisions. It creates uncertainty and that is not what one wants to see in such a big organization. There must be certainty, stability and clear directions in terms of where the institution is going,” he said.
