Cop confiscates three City Police cars
By Eliaser Ndeyanale
ONE of 13 City Police superintendents who are owed a combined N$6.5 million has approached the High Court to recoup about N$400,000 owed to him by the municipal law enforcement body in back-pay.
The superintendent, who does not want his name to be mentioned, said he approached the court for a writ of execution to attach three City Police vehicles valued at about N$1.7 million.
Confidente is informed that other superintendents also want to attach City Police properties to recover monies owed to them. The superintendent said he and 12 others filed an arbitration award from the Labour Court at the High Court on 28 August. “In its own, it (the arbitration ward) becomes a court order of the High Court, but from 20 August the City has not done anything. They kept quiet.”
This week the superintendent in question approached his lawyer to apply for a writ of execution and subsequently two Golf 7s valued at about N$1,2 million and a Toyota Fortuner (chief Abraham Kanime’s official vehicle) were attached on Monday. If the City does not interdict the attachment within 21 days, the vehicles will be auctioned.
The source wanted to know why Windhoek City councilors were not doing anything about it. “They are not in control. They are inactive, because they are doing zero. Things are happening at the City, but they don’t intervene. Previously the chairperson of the management committee (Agatha Iiyambo) promised to look into it, but properties belonging to the taxpayers are being attached,” they said.
It is understood that the City of Windhoek did not appeal against the order neither 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 cases 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 confirmed that his official vehicle had been attached but declined to go into detail, saying questions should be referred to CEO Robert Kahimise’s office. Management committee chairperson Agatha Iiyambo said she was not aware that three City Police vehicles had been attached.
Confidente reported last month that almost two years ago the superintendents in question, whose names are known to this publication, had dragged the City to Labour Court 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 for legal opinion, where we pay around N0,000 from our pockets,” one of the affected 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 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 did not want to comply and he is also not giving us an explanation as to how 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.”