THE three-page handwritten suicide note left by the late contested Ovambanderu Paramount Chief, Keharanjo II Nguvauva, apparently sheds no light on why he ended his life.
Keharanjo’s distraught mother, Aletta Nguvauva, could barely hold back her tears when The Namibian visited her at her house in Soweto in Windhoek’s Katutura residential area yesterday.She said: ‘For someone who’s lost a person like my child, who met a lot of people and was loved by many, it is very difficult to have anything in your heart. Everything feels so blocked here. At this point in time, everything is just too harsh and I cannot say anything.’Aletta Nguvauva said the last time her son phoned her was last Tuesday after he had an accident with his car ‘outside Windhoek’. It is understood that Keharanjo overturned his car close to Omaruru ‘while he was alone in the car’.He sent her an SMS on Thursday in which he ‘sounded difficult’ about the accident in which he was apparently only ‘slightly injured’, his mother said.They were going to meet on Friday to discuss the accident. By Friday afternoon, she received an SMS from someone who wanted to confirm rumours that Keharanjo had died. This was the first word she heard of her eldest son’s death.Aletta Nguvauva said she never expected her son to take his own life and ‘we don’t have a clue’ why he committed suicide.She said Keharanjo also did not nominate an heir to the controversial throne. ‘He just said the culture will take its course.’On Sunday, Keharanjo’s uncle, Edwin Tjiramba, said his nephew clearly stipulated how his funeral proceedings need to be conducted in the lengthy suicide note. He was apparently also clear ‘about where he does not want to be buried’.Meanwhile, the owner of the house in Mwaka Street between Khomasdal and Otjomuise, where the suicide took place, yesterday said he made the shocking discovery when he accompanied a property evaluator to his house at about 16h00 on Friday.The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he found Keharanjo hanging from the garage roof. Keharanjo apparently used an electrical cord to hang himself.Keharanjo’s girlfriend, Jane, was a tenant at the house. According to the owner, Keharanjo stayed over from time to time.Keharanjo apparently arrived at the house accompanied by two friends on Thursday evening. The two friends later left.It now appears as if Keharanjo stayed behind at the house Friday morning when everyone else went to work.The landlord said he was not aware of any tension between the couple.Jane refused to comment yesterday. ‘I’m really not in the mood for interviews. Maybe later.’Also yesterday, it was reported that Keharanjo’s death will not give the opposing faction – led by his half-brother, Fisheries Deputy Minister Kilus Nguvauva – the opportunity to do as they please.Fears that Nguvauva’s death at the age of 26 will leave a leadership vacuum in the deeply divided Ovambanderu community were allayed by family members yesterday.Tjiramba on Sunday said although Keharanjo’s death left a void, an heir to the chieftainship would be announced as soon as he was buried.Tjiramba said Nguvauva ‘did not mince his words about the succession’.’Just because he is no more, [does not mean] they [the Kilus faction] can have carte blanche to do what they want,’ Tjiramba said.According to Tjiramba, his nephew ‘did not go down without a fight. He almost resolved to fight from his grave to have justice.’Tjiramba added that ‘note should be taken that the passing away has just given impetus to the recognition of this traditional authority by the Namibian Government’.Kilus Nguvauva said he planned to visit his stepmother, Aletta, yesterday afternoon.He said the last time he and his half-brother had been in contact was in October last year.Asked how he expected Keharanjo’s death to affect the succession, Kilus Nguvauva said: ‘No comment on that one.’A Facebook group, created ‘in loving memory of Chief Keharanjo Nguvauva’, had close to 60 members by yesterday afternoon.One entry reads: ‘I was honestly sad to hear about your passing. Personally I did not know you, but I often wondered how you felt about all the things that were reported in the media. What I do know is that it takes a lot of guts to do what you did and I wish you had someone you could talk to.’
