Sostenus Wilherm
The High Court has taken the next procedural step in a lawsuit in which the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) is seeking to recover more than N$4.3 million from its former chief executive, Hilya Nghiwete, following a Supreme Court judgment that upheld her dismissal.
Judge Beatrix De Jager on Monday ordered the parties to file a joint case management report by 4 August 2026 before appearing for a case management conference on 11 August 2026.
The report is expected to identify the issues in dispute, indicate the evidence to be presented and outline the readiness of the matter for trial.
The civil action, instituted by NSFAF earlier this year, seeks to recover a total of N$4,301,277.36, excluding interest and legal costs, which the fund alleges was paid to Nghiwete under an arbitration award and a subsequent settlement agreement that ultimately lost their legal basis following a Supreme Court ruling.
NSFAF is claiming N$2,178,249.09 in back pay, N$1,739,716.01 in monthly remuneration and bonuses, N$337,435.26 in pension fund contributions, and N$45,877 in other employment-related benefits, including Social Security contributions and an NSFAF loan recovery.
The fund argues that all the payments were made while litigation over Nghiwete’s dismissal was still ongoing and in compliance with an arbitration award that had declared her dismissal unfair and ordered her reinstatement with full benefits.
NSFAF further contends that the legal foundation for those payments disappeared after the Supreme Court overturned key findings made in Nghiwete’s favour.
According to the claim, the Supreme Court’s judgment, delivered on 6 September 2024, upheld NSFAF’s cross-appeal, set aside the finding that Nghiwete had been unfairly dismissed and overturned the order requiring the fund to compensate her.
NSFAF argues that, because of that judgment, the money paid to Nghiwete was no longer legally due.
In its court papers, the fund states that Nghiwete was consequently unjustly enriched while NSFAF suffered a corresponding financial loss because it had made the payments in the bona fide belief that it was legally obliged to do so pending the outcome of the appeals.
The dispute originates from Nghiwete’s dismissal on 7 February 2020 after disciplinary proceedings that had begun in 2018.
She referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the Labour Commissioner, who ruled in her favour in July 2021, declaring the dismissal both substantively and procedurally unfair.
The arbitrator ordered NSFAF to reinstate her and to pay the remuneration she would have earned had she not been dismissed.
NSFAF appealed that ruling to the Labour Court. However, before the appeal was decided, the parties entered into a settlement agreement under which Nghiwete agreed that the reinstatement order would be suspended while the appeal was pending.
In return, NSFAF paid her more than N$2.17 million in back pay and continued paying her monthly remuneration until the appeal process was concluded.
The Labour Court later upheld the finding that the dismissal had been unfair but overturned the reinstatement order.
Both parties subsequently approached the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled entirely in NSFAF’s favour by setting aside the unfair dismissal finding and the related compensation orders.
NSFAF now maintains that because the Supreme Court’s decision is final, every payment made pursuant to the arbitration award and settlement agreement became recoverable once the legal basis for those payments fell away.
The fund argues that Nghiwete has refused to repay the money despite demand, prompting the institution of the present civil action.
Besides repayment of the N$4.3 million, NSFAF is seeking interest at 20% per annum from the date of judgment until final payment, together with legal costs.
