Bondelswarts office remains shut as leadership disputes stall community services

The Bondelswarts Traditional Authority office at Gibeon in the Hardap region has been closed for the past six weeks, with leadership disputes and court challenges stalling services to the community.

Community member Aloe Berend says it is unfair that councillors are not providing services to the community, but are receiving monthly allowances.

Lukas Swartbooi, Sara Bock, Ignacia Klaaste and Ambrosius Cloete are Bondelswarts Traditional Authority councillors and residents of the Hardap region.

Senior councillor Hans Jossop, Dominikus Snewe, Hendrik Rooi, Bernadette Thomas, Petrus Domrogh, Amalia Albertz, and Gert Deerstaan are ||Kharas region residents.

“People have applied for communal land rights to the traditional authority, dating as far back as 2021 up to 2023.

Their applications are still waiting for approval and to be confirmed by the traditional authority, and to be sent to the Hardap Communal Land Board for ratification and certification.

“The above-mentioned processing must be done within 30 working days.

But with the Bondelswarts Traditional Authority leaders at Gibeon, it takes one to two or more years to finalise the customary land rights to the land board,” Berend says.

Swartbooi has confirmed the closure of the office.

He says the Bondelswarts community in the Hardap region has undertaken to donate N$50 monthly to pay for an administrative officer who will render services three days per week.

The money has not been forthcoming so far, Swartbooi says, and the identified person indicated they would only be available from September due to studies and other commitments.

He says the four councillors in the Hardap region then undertook that each would take one day per week to attend to the community’s service delivery needs.

Bock and Klaaste, can, however, not fulfil this commitment as they are listed as respondents in a High Court case challenging the inauguration of Denzyl Christiaans as chief of the traditional community last year.

“I have taken it upon myself to go to the office on Wednesdays to attend to administrative matters.

But then I fell sick and have been off for about a month now.

“The other issue is with the two councillors unavailable, the council cannot make decisions as we require a quorum of at least three councillors present for meetings,” Lukas says.

Bock says this is the second time the office has been closed.

Prior to this, it was closed from November last year to May this year.

Bock says she and Klaaste will not go to the office as they are waiting for the outcome of the court case on 2 September, which will indicate the way forward.

The traditional authority inaugurated Denzyl Christiaans on 25 October last year at Warmbad in the ||Kharas region.

The royal house has challenged this inauguration and asked the court to pronounce itself on the legality of the procedures.

Albertz of the Christiaans royal house on the same weekend announced the unanimous decision to designate Nathaniel Christiaans as the new captain of the Bondelswarts tribe.

“We do not know what the outcome will be. Therefore, we have opted not to go to the office until the judgement is delivered on 2 September.

“The division within our traditional authority is really difficult to deal with.

There are councillors in Hardap that side with some councillors in ||Kharas, and others who don’t talk to each other, and all this hampers our work,” Bock says.

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