Henties ignores Uutoni, insists on CEO suspension

By Kaipaherue Kandjii

The Henties Bay municipal council chairperson, Lewies Vermaak, has refused to comply with the urban development minister’s request not to suspend the chief executive officer Elizabeth Coetzee over power abuse charges.

In early October, Vermaak wrote to Erastus Uutoni requesting permission to suspend Coetzee on an array of irregularities ranging from unprocedural appointment of a debt collector firm, Red Force, discrimination, abuse of power, unfair labour practice, altering employment conditions, victimisation, insubordination, and leaking secrets, amongst others.

Uutoni urged Vermaak to draft charges, put them forth to the CEO, and follow the disciplinary procedures “instead of opting for [a] suspension,”

Vermaak told Confidente they would follow a “different path” and had since written a letter to Uutoni explaining why they opted to stick to their guns.

“The Council met yesterday, and we decided to follow a different path.

We wrote a letter to him [Uutoni] explaining our decision, we enlisted the rules and regulations [as outlined] in the Labour Act, and our suspension was given to the CEO until further notice. So we will appoint somebody to [carry out] the investigation,” Vermaak said.

He added that The Council resolved to uphold the suspension and appointed its human resource manager, Ignasia Neis, as acting CEO.

“We cannot provide a timeline on how long it will take. It can be two months, three, or even five or six.

So she [acting CEO] must appoint now, and it all depends on the process, but it should at least take up to six months, so it all depends on how quickly we appoint [an investigating officer], the access to the documents and findings before we can let the minister know [of the outcome] because we want to do this properly,” he added.

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