The ||Khomanin traditional community has raised more than N$4 000 to approach a lawyer over its ongoing dispute with minister of urban and rural development James Sankwasa.
The ||Khomanin Traditional Community engaged Sankwasa on Tuesday over documents submitted to his ministry regarding their call to remove their chief, Julien Gawanas, and the status of an audit into the community’s finances.
Community activist Shaun Gariseb says the decision follows engagements with the attorney general over what the community describes as the minister’s inconsistent handling of their concerns.
The community wants clarity on the status of the section 12 process, updates on audit reports and an undertaking that the disputed ||Khomanin Traditional Authority will not be engaged or recognised as representing them.
“We were only asking for the status of the Section 12 process, the audit reports and an undertaking that the corrupt traditional authority does not get anything or get engaged in our name,” Gariseb says.
He accuses Sankwasa of making claims about laws and procedures that do not exist and criticises him for allegedly sending his deputy minister to receive a petition while claiming he was not in the building.
He said this on Tuesday after the minister walked away during their handover petition and inquiry on audit reports.
“The minister recently said he had never seen our papers. Today, he proved that he has not read anything,” Gariseb said.
Gariseb questioned what he described as Sankwasa’s differing approach to traditional communities, pointing to the minister’s engagements with traditional leaders at Katima Mulilo.
He said Sankwasa had moved swiftly on the Masubia matter shortly after his appointment, while the ||Khomanin community is still waiting for meaningful intervention.
“His approach to certain traditional authorities is unacceptable. He seems not to respect certain tribes and only respects others,” Gariseb said.
“The ǂNukhoen will not allow people like Sankwasa to dictate our plight and customs. The will of the people shall prevail.”
Sankwasa has advised the concerned community to follow procedures while defending his deputy minister, Evelyn Nawases-Taeyele, who was refused by the group.
“She was delegated by me and when you undermine her, you undermine me because she is also a minister,” he says.
