Planned Damara meeting stirs up a hornet’s nest

THE !oe≠Gân Traditional Authority has distanced itself from a Damara meeting organised for this weekend at Okombahe in the Erongo Region.

Okombahe is the seat of the !oe≠Gân Traditional Authority but Chief Immanuel /Gâseb said they were not recognised in the organisation or informed about its specific agenda.’The person who called the meeting is a senior councillor in another traditional authority but decides to have meetings in someone else’s authority. Why can’t he organise it where he has authority?’ /Gâseb said.A meeting inviting all Damaras has been called by Leonard ‘Mistake’ !Hoaëb who is a senior councillor with another Damara traditional authority in the Khorixas district.!Hoaëb wrote to /Gâseb at the beginning of this month to inform him that he had initiated a meeting of Damaras at Okombahe and also invited him at the same time to send three people to represent the !oe≠Gân Traditional Authority.!Hoaëb said last weekend’s meeting was supposed to compile an agenda for a bigger meeting at the same venue for the coming weekend where all Damaras are invited.He said the meeting ‘will be the highest decision-making body of the Damaras’./Gâseb said all seven recognised traditional leaders, who are also members of the Damara Chiefs’ Council, cannot attend the meeting as it was called by somebody who had no mandate to do so.’We call on the !oe≠Gân community to boycott the planned Damara meeting and we call on other Damara traditional authorities to discourage their community members from challenging legitimate traditional leaders since such acts exhibits anarchy within respected traditional authorities,’ /Gâseb said.He said the timing of the meeting was wrong as elections were around the corner and conflicts could lead to unnecessary tension.’We need peace and unnecessary conflicts can lead to unrest when we don’t need it most,’ /Gâseb said.The Namibian attempted to get hold of !Hoaëb and left messages on his cellphone but could not reach him.However, he was on the NBC Damara/Nama radio service explaining that the meeting was apolitical and only needed to iron out some issues around Damara leadership.He said such Damara meetings were customary before Independence and served as a platform for leaders to interact with the people.The Namibian understands that some of the issues on the agenda include the recent arrest of a group of Damara people at Ongombo West as well as the Government’s lack of recognition of Damara heroes on national days such as Heroes’ Day.christof@namibian.com.na