Judgement reserved on Ombalantu crowning

THE disputed crowning of a new king for the Ombalantu community in northern Namibia made a return to the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

In a case argued before Judge Dave Smuts, the head of the Ombalantu Traditional Authority, Chief Oswin Shifiona Mukulu, and the man who claims to have been anointed as the king of the Aambalantu people, Michael Shapumba Nauta, are locked in a battle over the leadership of their community.Mukulu and the Ombalantu Traditional Authority obtained an urgent court interdict which was supposed to prevent the crowning of Nauta as Ombalantu king in the High Court on July 30 last year. Whether that interim interdict should remain in place and be made a final order of the court, or should be discharged, is the question which was argued before Judge Smuts yesterday.The judge reserved his judgement in the matter after hearing arguments from Dennis Khama, representing Mukulu and the Ombalantu Traditional Authority, and Norman Tjombe, who represented Nauta.According to Mukulu, he is officially recognised as the traditional leader of the Ombalantu Traditional Authority, in terms of the Traditional Authority Act.He is charging that the plan to crown Nauta as king, or Ohamba, of the Ombalantu community, is aimed at sowing divisions and creating confusion in his community.The court has also been informed that the Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, Jerry Ekandjo, last year warned that Government regarded the planned installation of Nauta as Ombalantu king as illegal. Ekandjo also warned that the coronation of a new king in an area already under the leadership of the Ombalantu Traditional Authority and Chief Mukulu would not be recognised by government, and ordered that the crowning was not to go ahead.Nauta has however informed the court in an affidavit that he is a descendant of the royal family of the Aambalantu, and that he was confirmed as king of that community by the then head of the royal family, the late Bertinus Neumbo, on January 1 2000.What happened on July 30, before the court’s interdict was issued, was that a ceremony was held in which he received the customary blessings as king, Nauta has explained.The last king of the Aambalantu was King Kamhaku ka Huhwa, who is recorded in history as having been killed by some of his subjects at some point around the mid-1800s. For some 150 years after his death, the Aambalantu did not crown a new king or queen in his place.Tjombe argued yesterday that the case before the court had become academic, because the event which Mukulu and the Ombalantu Traditional Authority tried to prevent from happening through an interdict had already taken place.Tjombe told the judge that according to Nauta he is not trying to usurp the position of Mukulu or trying to put himself in a superior position over the chief. Being king of the Aambalantu is merely a ceremonial position, Tjombe argued.He also argued that it is not a violation of the Traditional Authorities Act for Nauta to refer to himself as the king of the Aambalantu.Khama argued that it would be contrary to the customs of the Aambalantu for their community to have both a king and a chief as leaders of their community at the same time. The law would also not allow the anointing of a king while the community is already under the leadership if Mukulu as its chief, Khama argued.He asked the court to confirm the interim interdict issued at the end of July.In that interdict, the court not only ordered that the planned crowning or inauguration of Nauta as king was not allowed to go ahead, but also declared that the coronation or appointment of any person as king of the Ombalantu community would contravene the Traditional Authorities Act and would be null and void.Khama is being instructed by Government lawyer Tulimeke Koita.