THE Ovambanderu Traditional Authority (OTA), which is currently headed by acting Chief Peter Nguvauva, has rejected the recent Government recognition of Keharanjo Nguvauva as successor to his late father and will hold a meeting later this month near Epukiro in the Omaheke Region.
In a statement issued just before Christmas, Acting Chief Nguvauva said the ‘entire rank and file of our community has taken note with great shock and disappointment of the distorted, one-sided and unsigned report’ of the commission appointed by Jerry Ekandjo, Minister of Local, Regional Government and Housing, to investigate if indeed Keharanjo Nguvauva or his older half-brother Kilus should be the rightful successor of Chief Munjuku, who died in January 2008.’It is the resolve of our Authority to reject and challenge this biased, one-sided and unsigned (ministerial commission) report … and to fight it with all means at its disposal and will reply formally through our legal representatives to the Minister in due course,’ the statement said. The two half-brothers have both been claiming to be eligible to succeed their father, which has caused divisions among the Ovambanderu community.The commission found that 23-year-old Keharanjo should succeed Chief Munjuku and Minister Ekandjo sent a letter to Keharanjo’s lawyers a few days before Christmas, informing him about the commission’s recommendation and that he, Ekandjo, would follow that recommendation. Acting Chief Peter Nguvauva said the commission’s report was ‘half-baked and marred by a number of irregularities’ as the commission allegedly ignored the Authority’s tribal constitution, misinterpreted and ‘distorted’ Ovambanderu customary laws, and ignored the authority of the Nguvauva Clan and the Ovambanderu Supreme Council, which are ’empowered to steer the succession process’.The OTA also lashed out at the Ministry for concluding that Keharanjo should be the next Chief although he was born in Botswana, was a citizen of that country and apparently carries a Botswana passport while ‘our Government clearly knowing this and that the Traditional Authorities Act of Namibia only applies to Namibian citizens.’ Senior Traditional Councillor Erastus Kahuure of the OTA, who supported Keharanjo as successor and who claimed back in 2008 that the late Chief Munjuku had informed him that his younger son should succeed him, had inaugurated Keharanjo in August 2008 according to traditional rites, which infuriated the Kilus faction.Traditionally, the annual gathering of the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority is around January 1, but it was postponed to January 16. ‘There was a funeral of a senior traditional leader over New Year,’ Ngahahe Tjiposa, spokesperson of the OTA, told The Namibian over the weekend.
