Staff Writer
Suspended Okahandja municipality CEO Martha Mutilifa is set to be reinstated to her position six months after her suspension by the now suspended council.
Mutilifa was suspended in December last year with full pay by the council management committee amid allegations of corruption, fraud, abuse of funds and insubordination.
“We are going to reinstate her because she is currently on suspension with full pay and it’s the logical thing to do. We cannot pay someone to stay at home, yet she can also contribute to the betterment of the town,” Ministry of Urban and Rural Development official appointed by the minister to implement his directives at council, Linus //Garoëb said.
Quizzed on when she will resume duities, //Garoëb said Mutilifa was currently attending to some urgent personal matters and, “the plans are that she can resume work whenever she is ready under my supervision.”
The Urban and Rural Development ministry official, however, said the council will still investigate the allegations raised against Mutilifa, among those being signing off several questionable land deals despite a moratorium on the sale of land at Okahandja imposed by the urban and rural development ministry, back in 2015.
“They suspended her based on those allegations and we will investigate them,” he said.
The planned reinstatement of Mutilifa comes as suspended Okahandja councilors are themselves suspended. Those councilors include the town’s Mayor, Johannes ‘Congo’ Hindjou, Deputy Mayor Hileni Iita, management committee chairperson Gideon Uwu-Khaeb and Helmi Maruru, a member of the management committee. These besieged councilors approached the High Court in May, 2020 seeking an order to overturn the decision by former urban and rural development minister Peya Mushelenga to suspend them.
According to the Namibian, the councilors have also asked the court to order their immediate reinstatement with “all such powers, functions, rights and obligations” they had before they were suspended.
Mushelenga suspended the councillors in March on allegations of mismanagement, failure to comply with ministerial directives and non-submission of council minutes.
He accused the suspended councillors of not having the required level of leadership in general, persistent non-adherence to appropriate laws governing the council and lack of accountability as well as recklessness with public resources.
