Rebeka Haimbili, a lawyer registered with the High Court of Namibia, has been appointed Head of Governance, Risk, and Compliance at CAF.

This appointment was made exactly seven days ago. What makes this appointment particularly troubling is the staged transparency surrounding it.

CAF published the job posting online, attempting to create the illusion of a competitive and transparent recruitment process, when in reality, the decision had clearly already been made. Rebeka Haimbili was to be recruited regardless.

She is the personal assistant to the Chairman of the CAF Governance Committee, Petrus Damaseb (Namibia). They previously worked together at the Namibian Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Damaseb is a close ally of Patrice Motsepe.

Rebeka Haimbili has today replaced Hannan Nur, the woman who authored a damning report on Veron Mosengo’s disastrous management at CAF. https://afrikafoot.fr/exclusif-les-13-points-du-rapports-dhannan-nur-qui-accusent-veron-mosengo-et-sarah-mukuna/

This is the same Rebeka Haimbili who, in her previous role as assistant to the Chairman of the Governance Committee, was personally responsible for controlling access to the independent audit firm’s report on governance failures at CAF—the very report that confirmed all of Hannan Nur’s allegations.

It was Rebeka Haimbili who physically distributed iPads to an extremely small group of people:

CAF Secretary General Veron Mosengo Omba,

Sarah Mukuna, CAF’s Director of Associations,

Cedrick Aghey, current Legal Director and Veron Mosengo’s Chief of Staff, the Director of Human Resources,

Luxolo September, media relations officer and a close associate of Motsepe recruited by the former CAF president,

the travel and accommodation team, and

Hannan Nur, formerly with CAF’s Governance, Risk, and Compliance department (fired by Veron Mosengo after the Executive Committee rejected his dismissal, who has since sued CAF for wrongful termination), solely to read the report under her supervision.

No copies.
No downloads.
No transfers.
Phones confiscated.

Reading strictly monitored.

Only those deemed “directly concerned” were authorized to consult the document, and even then, under extremely tight control.

This entire system of secrecy was managed by Rebeka Haimbili herself, acting on behalf of Mr. Damaseb. She thus became the guardian of “institutional truth,” ensuring that the report remained buried, contained, and inaccessible.

More recently, CAF President Patrice Motsepe even publicly stated that any member of the Executive Committee wishing to consult the audit report had to go to CAF headquarters in Cairo, where the document is only visible on an iPad, under supervision.

No copy.

No transparency.

No accountability.

After carrying out all these underhanded dealings, Rebeka Haimbili is now CAF’s Director of Governance, Risk, and Compliance.

The irony is almost insulting.

An individual who actively restricted access to a report documenting governance deficiencies now finds himself in charge of governance, risk, and compliance. This raises serious and unavoidable questions regarding:

•independence,
•conflicts of interest,
•institutional capture, and
•whether CAF governance is nothing more than an internal closed circuit.

One question remains:
Is Rebeka Haimbili still the assistant to the Chairman of the CAF Governance Committee while also holding the position of Director of Governance, Risk, and Compliance at CAF?

Patrice Motsepe has appointed Judge Petrus Damaseb as Chairman of the Joint Inquiry Committee tasked with reviewing the independent audit firm’s report on governance non-compliance at CAF.

This appointment was officially announced in a timely press release published on the CAF website.

Today, this same president has effectively appointed his personal assistant, Rebeka Haimbili, who was responsible for controlling and distributing iPads containing the unfavorable audit report to a very small group of people within the CAF administration, to the position of Director of Governance, Risk, and Compliance.

She replaces the original whistleblower, Hannan Nur, whose allegations were fully substantiated and confirmed by the independent audit itself.

The appearance and implications of this situation are impossible to ignore: the person responsible for managing access to evidence of governance failures is now overseeing the very function meant to prevent, detect, and correct these failures.

The appearance and implications of this situation cannot be ignored: the person responsible for managing access to evidence of governance failures now oversees the very function meant to prevent, detect, and correct those failures.

CAF’s statutes and governance regulations mandate the “independence” of the Chairman of the Governance Committee.

An assistant to the Chairman of the Governance Committee, who subsequently becomes responsible for governance, risk, and compliance within CAF, assumes a contractual executive role, thus undermining the statutory requirement that oversight and governance functions must remain independent, unaffiliated, and free from any contractual link with CAF.

An Executive Committee meeting is scheduled to take place in Tanzania on February 13, 2026.

The agenda has not yet been released and is expected to be made public only at the last minute, apparently due to concerns within the General Secretariat regarding potential media leaks.

Gerson Melo has returned to CAF. Previously reporting to Sarah Mukuna, he considered her incompetent and believed she owed her position solely to the support of Veron Mosengo. He had left his CAF post citing difficulties in working under her leadership. After a stint at FIFA, he has now returned to CAF.

Gerson Melo has been appointed Director of Development, replacing Raul Chipenda, who was dismissed a few months ago.