OTJIWARONGO: Two local authority councillors of the Otjiwarongo Municipality resigned from their positions at the Otjiwarongo Municipality’s management committee last week.

The two are Gideon Iiyambo of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) and Sebetius Guiteb of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM).

Guiteb was a full member of the management committee, while Iiyambo served as an additional member.

They now remain ordinary council members as of 08 February 2024.

They allegedly resigned after a lengthy disagreement between each other over the recruitment process of the Otjiwarongo Chief Executive Officer (CEO), which ended up interviewing one male candidate out of 47 applicants who applied for the position.

The Otjiwarongo CEO position has been vacant since July 2023 after Moses Matyayi left for greener pastures at the City of Windhoek.

Chairperson of the management committee at Otjiwarongo, Godhardt Hoko in an interview with Nampa on Sunday afternoon said he is aware of Iiyambo and Guiteb’s resignat
ions.

‘In their resignation letters they only cited a broken working trust, as well as their personal reasons as grounds for their resignations,’ said Hoko.

Hoko denied accusations of him bending requirements that led to only one candidate who made it to the interview on the position of CEO on 10 February 2024 at Otjiwarongo.

Hoko said there is nothing sinister for the panel to interview one candidate on the position, adding that it is a normal practice at the municipality.

Mayor Gottlieb Shivute on his part on Monday morning said the two councillors have been already replaced by councillor Ernst Muraranganda of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), who will serve on the committee as a full member, together with Hilde Jesaja and Hoko.

Jesaja, Shivute, Hoko and deputy mayor Julienda Kampungu are all from the Swapo Party.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency