THE struggle for succession to the head of the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority (OTA) between half-brothers Kilus and Keharanjo II Nguvauva boiled over with the death of Mbanderu Paramount Chief Munjuku II Nguvauva in mid-2008.
Infighting that had gone on for more than two years prior reached an all-time high with the appointment of the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources and regional councillor of the Steinhausen constituency, Kilus Nguvauva, by the Nguvauva clan under the leadership of acting chief and guardian of the clan, Peter Nguvauva, as their heir apparent on June 7 2008. He was to be inaugurated on August 16 2008. Senior Chief Erastus Kahuure at the time almost prophetically stated that the ascendancy battle would be long and bitter since it had started on the ‘wrong footing’. The Supreme Council of the OTA rejected Keharanjo’s appointment as paramount chief, and in July 2008, a faction calling themselves the Concerned Group within the OTA broke away and appointed Keharanjo as its paramount chief. The inauguration was scheduled for August 9 that year. The wife of the late Chief Munjuku, Queen Aletha Karikondua Nguvauva, was among those who talked to the media to announce the new development in the succession saga.This group said it was in accordance with a resolution taken by the General Assembly of the Ovambanderu community. The installation of two paramount chiefs led to conflict between the two groups, and the Minister of Regional and Local Government, Jerry Ekandjo, was called in to intervene. On August 6 2008, Ekandjo wrote a letter to acting Chief Peter Nguvauva and head of the concerned group councillor Kahuure, requesting that both put on hold their plans to enthrone a paramount chief. In response to Ekandjo’s letter, the inauguration of Kilus Nguvauva was postponed indefinitely. Later in August 2008, acting Chief Peter Nguvauva declared a dispute in accordance with Section 21 of the Traditional Authority Act. The Act states that if members of a traditional community fail to resolve a dispute, they may submit to the minister a written petition, upon which the minister may appoint an investigation into the dispute. In late October 2008, the minister wrote a letter to the two factions to inform them that they would be barred from the 11th annual meeting of the Council of Traditional Leaders until the leadership dispute within the OTA was resolved. In November 2008, the faction under acting Chief Peter Nguvauva threatened to camp out at the Safari Court in Windhoek where the meeting was to take place. In January 2009, the Master of the High Court issued a directive that the estate of the late Chief Munjuku II Nguvauva should not be executed since no executor had been appointed. The Kilus group was accused of having defied the directive by going ahead with the distribution of the estate. Keharanjo II then also claimed that the Kilus group intended to evict his mother, Aletha, from her late husband’s home. In response to this threat, the Ovambanderu Women’s Council said they would hold a demonstration to demand that Deputy Minister Kilus Nguvauva be removed from all public positions and responsibilities. They also appealed to Government to critically evaluate the role of the deputy minister ‘especially with regard to the unlawfulness of his actions’, referring to the defiance of the Master of the High Court’s directive. The lingering conflict again boiled over with the planning of the 113rd Ovambanderu Traditional Authority commemoration that marks the execution of King Kahimemua Nguvauva. The Keharanjo group sent out invitations for the commemorations in June 2009, but the Kilus group maintained that no commemoration would take place. Fearing a bloody clash between the two groups, the Namibian Police called off the commemoration, but later that month, the Keharanjo group announced their intention to go ahead despite the Police ban. The report from the investigating committee appointed by Ekandjo to look into the Ovambanderu succession issue came out in January 2010, and was outright rejected by the Supreme Council and Kilus group for identifying Keharanjo as the rightful heir to the tribal throne. The group called the report ‘biased, twisted, distorted and one-sided’, and charged that it was not signed. At the start of June 2010, the Nguvauva Royal House expressed deep concern over reports that Keharanjo had been abducted in broad daylight, and believed to have been held against his will at a lodge outside Kapps Farm, about 16 kilometres outside Windhoek. It was reported that the alleged abduction took place because Keharanjo II had planned a press briefing at which he wanted to express his intention to abdicate from the position of paramount chief. Keharanjo denied that he was abducted, and denied his desire to abdicate, then saying that the chieftaincy could not be traded and that it was not his authority to bestow the chieftaincy onto someone else. Later in June 2010, the group favouring Kilus took issue with Ekandjo’s recommendation for Keharanjo’s takeover, and later that same month the Keharanjo group headed to court to challenge them being barred from holding a meeting at Epukiro. In August 2010, High Court Judge Collins Parker ruled that meetings could be held at Epukiro by different Ovambanderu groups with permission from the Mbanderu Traditional Authority. In the middle of October 2010, relations between the two factions continued to sour when the Keharanjo group filed an urgent application with the High Court seeking an interdict to prohibit the funeral of acting Chief Peter Nguvauva, who had died on October 4, on ‘sacred ground’ at Okahandja. The Keharanjo group eventually lost the legal challenge in November 2010, and Peter Nguvauva was buried at Okahandja.
