An embattled Zimbabwean vocational trainer was forced to go back to the court alleging harassment and mistreatment by the Namibia Training Authority (NTA) despite an interdict issued by the High Court against NTA recently.
Tambaoga Shirichena, 42, lodged an urgent application on Monday, 14 July, demanding that the NTA should obtain and pay for his visa to stay in the country because he considers himself a permanent employee of the training authority. He argued before Justice Mathios Cheda that without a work permit and visa he cannot stay in Namibia, because officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration can pounce on him anytime. He said this is despite the fact that the court has ordered NTA not to remove him from the official residence at Valombola Vocational Training Centre pending the outcome of the labour dispute.
Earlier Shirichena had approached the High Court to demand that he should remain in the NTA house and continue to enjoy all the benefits and rights as a permanent employee. Justice Cheda had provisionally ordered that the parties should prepare their head of argument and submit it by the 10 July 2014.
Surprisingly, said Shirichena, NTA did not submit the documents as ordered by the court but instead approached him with a request to withdraw the case and negotiate for an out of court settlement.
According to the papers seen by Informanté, Shirichena received a phone call from Waldheim Nghikongwa, the acting manager of Valombola VTC in which he requested him to settle the matter out of court. When he went to see him personally, Shirichena was shown a document from the General Manager for Human Resources, Bernadette Imelda Sam dated 10 July 2014 requesting him to withdraw the court case and negotiate. Nghikongwa allegedly refused to give Shirichena a copy of the document even though he (Shirichena) allegedly requested it in order to make an informed decision.
Appearing on behalf of the NTA, the company legal secretary Thomas Nekongo told the court that NTA did not submit the head of argument because it did not intend to oppose the court order. Nekongo did not deny the fact that NTA approached the applicant for an out of court settlement, which was construed by Shirichena as harassment. This is allegedly so since they were supposed to contact him through the court channels.
See connected story:zimbawean-saved-from-eviction-following-expiry-of-work-permit-in-namibia
– informante.web
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