AN ATTEMPT by the leader of the Vaalgras Traditional Authority, Chief Joël Stephanus, to suppress the activities of members of his community who are challenging his leadership ended in failure in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.
Stephanus was asking the High Court to order nineteen members of the Vaalgras community about 60 kilometres north-east of Keetmanshoop, as well as a so-called ‘Concerned Group’ of Vaalgras residents, to restore him to ‘the peaceful and undisturbed leadership’ of the Vaalgras Traditional Authority, and to refrain from interfering in his leadership and from misleading the Vaalgras community.Judge Collins Parker heard arguments on Stephanus’s application on April 18.In his judgement yesterday he said no evidence at all had been placed before the court to show that the Vaalgras community members who were sued by Stephanus have illicitly deprived him of the chieftainship of the Vaalgras Traditional Authority.As a matter of logic and law, the court could only make an order directing that Stephanus should be restored to the peaceful and undisturbed leadership of his community if he has been deprived of that leadership in the first place, Judge Parker said.Accordingly, he said, he could not make the sort of order Stephanus wanted from the court.Judge Parker added that the actions which Stephanus was complaining of – such as an alleged campaign by members of the Vaalgras community to remove him from his leadership position, and attempts to convince his community that he is not competent to be their traditional chief – are not illegal.He was not referred to any law, and could not find any, ‘which prohibits a section of a traditional community from campaigning peaceably for the removal of their chief or head from his or her office for bad governance or maladministration, for example,’ Judge Parker remarked.’On the contrary, the (Traditional Authorities) Act provides for the removal of a chief or head of a traditional community where sufficient reason exists,’ he said. ‘And in my view bad governance or maladministration on the part of a chief or head of a traditional community is sufficient reason.’He pointed out that the Act states: ‘If there is sufficient reason to warrant the removal of a chief or head of a traditional community from office, such chief or head may be removed from office by the members of his or her traditional community in accordance with the customary law of that community.’What the Traditional Authorities Act prohibits is a violent and criminal process of challenging the leadership of a traditional leader, Judge Parker said.Stephanus has been the traditional leader of his community since 1975.He was represented in court by lawyer Frieda Schulz.Gerson Hinda, instructed by Patrick Kauta, represented the 20 respondents in the matter.
