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Ovaherero chiefs split over cancellation of Red Flag Day

Hoze Riruako

Two Ovaherero splinter groups are at loggerheads with each other over the cancellation of all their commemorative events, including the popular Red Flag Day.

This decision will also affect the observation of the Hamakari and Otjozondu Ozombungu events.

The Ovahaerero-Nama genocide of 1904 to 1908 is remembered on Red Flag Day.

The event is held at Commando No 1 at Okahandja annually.

Paramount chief Hoze Riruako, who heads one Ovaherero faction, on Tuesday said the group has indefinitely cancelled all commemorative events.

“I hereby announce that we have put in place the indefinite cancellation of all the commemorative and group events in respect of our Herero community,” he said.

“My leaders and I undertake to revisit this decision as and when the current tension within the community subsides. But ever since I was appointed as paramount chief at Otjimbingwe last year and even before I took that role, there have been so many threats and all kinds of ridiculing,” he added.

However, Itamunua Meroro, the director general of another group, fronted by Mutjinde Katjiua, disagrees with this decision.

“The bloodshed at Commando No 2 in Windhoek that claimed the life of Tjitunae Katjatenja was engineered and carried out by Dr Hoze’s faction,” Meroro says.

“Instead of showing remorse and calling for peace and calm, they were praising their ‘soldiers’ for a job well done. There are video clips to this effect,” he says.

Mutjinde Katjiua

Riruako said Katjiua’s group, which allegedly mediated against the traditional authority, is taking part in the character assassination of his group.

“And there have been all kinds of speeches that border on hate speech and treason,” he said this week.

“There was a time when we were burying the high priest, one of our high priests by the name of Apizai and we averted a looming crisis where people should have been able to rough up,” Riruako said.

He said the level of hostility between the two factions is palpable at funerals, weddings and different events.

The OTA would sometimes cancel weddings and funerals, he said.

“I would act the same way. But I couldn’t, because it doesn’t fall within the ambit of the authority,” he said.

In the past the two splinter groups have been disputing who controlled the Ovaheroro community.

Their disagreements have resulted in the Ovaherero community swearing in two chiefs, Riruako and Katjiua.

The two are also known in the Ovaherero culture as Ombara Uatjitambi.

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