Ovambanderu chief’s widow loses in grave dispute

LATE Ovambanderu paramount chief Munjuku Nguvauva II’s widow will have to adhere to the traditions of the Ovambanderu community if she wants to visit the grave of her husband at Okahandja, High Court acting judge Collins Parker ruled yesterday.

Acting judge Parker made the ruling in a judgement in which he ordered that the late chief’s widow, Aletha Nguvauva, her son Mutima Rikarera Nguvauva, and anyone acting under their directions or on their behalf may not enter the gravesite where the late chief is buried at Okahandja.

The judge found that the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority, which sued Nguvauva and her son in an attempt to prevent them from visiting the grave of the late chief two months ago to place a wreath on the grave, has the legal power to preserve and maintain the gravesite where the late chief is buried.

A revered previous leader of the Ovambanderu community, Kahimemua Nguvauva, is also buried in the graveyard where the late chief Munjuku Nguvauva II was laid to rest after his death in January 2008.

Acting judge Parker found that the gravesite is a cultural site that is sacred to the Ovambanderu community, and that the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority as a result has a statutory duty to preserve and maintain the site. Aletha Nguvauva is not precluded from placing a wreath on her late husband’s grave, but she can do so only in accordance with the tradition and traditional values of the Ovambanderu community, the judge said. The Ovambanderu Traditional Authority has the statutory duty to supervise and ensure observance of the Ovambanderu community’s traditions, he added.

Except for applying for an interdict to stop a planned wreathlaying ceremony at the grave of chief Munjuku Nguvauva II, the traditional authority was asking the court to forbid Aletha Nguvauva, her son and anyone acting under their directions or on their behalf to conduct the Ovambanderu community’s annual commemorations at Okahandja on any weekend other than the one immediately before 12 June, which was the date on which a German firing squad executed Kahimemua Nguvauva in 1896.

In an affidavit filed at the court on behalf of the traditional authority, Aletha Nguvauva was accused of having angered Ovambanderu ancestors when she visited the Okahandja gravesite in May last year to lay a wreath on her husband’s grave, allegedly without having followed required customs and rituals that should precede a visit to the site.

A drawn-out leadership dispute has split the Ovambanderu community since the death of the late chief Munjuku Nguvauva II in January 2008.

A son of the late chief and Aletha Nguvauva, Keharanjo Nguvauva, was preferred as his father’s successor by one faction in the community, while another backed an elder son of the late chief, Kilus Nguvauva, to succeed his father as traditional leader. After Keharanjo Nguvauva’s death in April 2011, Aletha Nguvauva took his place as her late husband’s would-be successor as leader, but Kilus Nguvauva finally won a High Court battle about the rival leadership claims in October 2014.

Aletha Nguvauva is still persisting with a claim that she is the rightful paramount chief of the community, though, she indicated in an affidavit also filed at the court. In this regard, acting judge Parker commented it could not be disputed that she is not the chief or acting chief of the Ovambanderu community, and also is not the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority itself.

Aletha Nguvauva and her son were represented by John Paul Jones, instructed by Doris Hans-Kaumbi, when the case was argued in June. Elise Angula and Saima Nambinga represented the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority.

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