Gideon relentless in NUST VC fight

Gideon relentless in NUST VC fight OGONE TLHAGE



WINDHOEK

University of Namibia academic professor Frednard Gideon, through his legal team, is demanding that the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) produce scorecards of interviews and all relevant documentation related to the recruitment process for the position of vice-chancellor at that institution.

Gideon was one of the contenders for the top NUST job, but ended up on the losing side after the recruitment panel selected Dr Erold Naomab to lead the country’s second biggest tertiary institution.

After failing to land the job, Gideon challenged the outcome of the selection through an urgent application filed at the High Court, opposing Naomab's appointment and adding that he [Gideon] had been the best performing candidate for the position during interviews.

In a submission made to the High Court last month, Gideon’s lawyer, Sisa Namandje, demanded that NUST hand over the scorecards for a fair adjudication to be carried out.

According to court papers filed on 23 March, the documents were necessary for the matter to be correctly adjudicated upon.

‘Playing hide-and-seek’

“In respect of the psychometric test reports, such reports form part of the recruitment, evaluation and qualitative selection process. The psychometric test report is thus an important piece of information needed by this court in order to establish the truth and to decide all issues open for its adjudication,” Namandje said.

He demanded all the panellists’ score sheets from the public presentations as well as the oral and face-to-face interviews of both candidates, and “the full employment agreement of the fifth respondent [Naomab] and all correspondences with him in relation to his employment”.

Namandje further accused NUST council chairperson Florette Nakusera of lacking transparency with regards to Naomab’s recruitment and appointment.

“Instead of taking the court into confidence and placing all the relevant documents before court, with respect, she chose to act in a manner completely incompatible with the requirement of transparency and resorted to play hide-and-seek. She did not even produce the HR report that was presented to council on 12 November 2020,” he said.

He added that Nakusera did not dispute the existence of the documents.