City cops move to impound mayor’s car
By Eliaser Ndeyanale
THIRTEEN City Police superintendents have applied for a writ of execution from the Windhoek High Court in order to auction off Windhoek Mayor Muesee Kazapua’s official vehicle, as well as two municipal buses in their continued fight to be compensated for outstanding back pay.
The superintendents who say they are owed a combined N$6.5 million in back pay approached the High Court this week for permission to sell one of the mayor’s official cars and the two buses.
Kazapua has two official cars, a Mercedes Benz and Toyota Fortuner. At the time of going to print Confidente could not confirm which of the vehicles the senior police officers want attached, but well-placed sources said one of the mayor’s vehicles, as well as two buses would be attached next week.
Just last week, one of the superintendents approached his lawyer to apply for a writ of execution, and subsequently two City Police Golf 7s (valued at about N$1.2 million) and a Toyota Fortuner (chief Abraham Kanime’s official vehicle) were attached.
It is understood that the City of Windhoek did not appeal against the order, nor did they request a review or rescission of judgment.
“As of now, there is nothing from the City… that court order, they have no alternative as to how they can pay because they forfeited” the chance of their case of succeeding.
“The City of Windhoek should know that court orders are not suggestions, neither requests but they should be complied with.
They are not given to appease people. They should be obeyed. If one is not happy, they can appeal or take it for review,” the source added.
Kanime last week also confirmed that his official vehicle had been attached, but declined to go into details, saying questions should be referred to CEO Robert Kahimise’s office.
Confidente reported last month that the superintendents in question, whose names are known to this publication, had dragged the City to the Labour Court almost two years ago after it failed to honour a promise to pay them monies owed to them since July 2017.
It was alleged at the time that Kahimise had promised the top cops that their salaries would be on par with their colleague, Abraham Vatileni, who had allegedly been secretly graded above his colleagues.
“They took us to court to stop the arbitration from the Labour Court from being enforced. We sought legal opinion, [for which] we paid around N$200,000 from our pockets,” one of the officers said. They also indicated that Kahimise informed them in person that he would write to Council so they could get their money, but after his suspension the promise was not honoured.
“We wrote a letter to the CEO inquiring as to why Vatileni is on top of us when he is just a superintendent, like us.
The CEO came to us and had a meeting with us around 27 July that year; he told us that there was an inconsistency and he would correct it.
“He told us to write an appeal and attach a motivational letter from Kanime. We did that and sent it to him (Kahimise) then he wrote to the manager for human capital, George Mayumbelo, to refer our item to council for approval.
“Then from there he just kept quiet. Then we went back to the Labour Commission to let them know that they (the municipal management) did not want to comply and he is also not giving us any explanation as to why Vatileni is earning more than us. Then we had another meeting with him at his office, [where] it was minuted that he would give us our grading before 15 December 2017.”