By: Justicia Shipena
Three Grootfontein councillors pulled out of a meeting held by the council amidst the drama at the municipality.
This follows the town’s troubled chief executive officer (CEO) Kisco Sinvula’s return to office last week, which erupted into chaos.
According to the chairperson of the management committee, Elizabeth Kastoor, the three say Acting CEO Sarie Hangara, who called the meeting, was illegally there.
“So we went ahead with the meeting although three of the councillors said they won’t be part of it because they felt the Acting CEO that called the meeting was illegal,” said Kastoor.
She added that the council had a meeting at which they formed a quorum on Friday.
“We promised the minister that we would go back to deliberate. We will write back to the minister when we sat on Friday to let him know the council says the suspension still stands. There is nothing that is changing. For us as the council, we stood firm that the suspension of the CEO is still on.”
The council is accusing Sinvula of tampering with evidence while in office.
“I think from my side he is tampering with evidence because there will be an investigation against him,” she said.
Kastoor stressed that she does not know what the suspended CEO is doing in the office while the council has Hangara as the acting CEO.
“This person ran away with the keys of the office, so as the council, we sat and decided to buy another stamp for the acting CEO so that the operations could continue. We cannot be held hostage by this person,” she expressed.
Hence she said the operations at the municipality are ongoing with Hangara as acting.
“The salaries have been paid and authorised by the acting. We don’t know what he is doing there because he has been blocked from the server. He has been blocked from all the signatories. There is nothing that he can do there, but he is just there.”
When The Villager reached out to Sinvula regarding the allegations of tampering with evidence, he refused to comment.
Last week, the ongoing civil war at the Grootfontein municipality was etched deeper after the council opened a case of trespassing against Sinvula.
Sinvula had shown up for work after being suspended, and urban and rural development minister Erastus Uutoni found the suspension invalid. However, the council maintains he is still suspended.
Kastoor claims that Sinvula stands accused of serious allegations and says Uutoini is not giving the council time to investigate him.
Meanwhile, official opposition party leader McHenry Venaani had also accused Uutoni of being part of the problem of discord at the Grootfontein municipality.
Venaani had said Uutoni should stop involving himself with the municipality.
Sinvula was suspended over issues relating to the procedure used to appoint Kangueehi & Kavendjii Incorporated law firm to represent the council.
