Village chief accused of land grab

DAVID Amunyela from Omutsegwondjamba village in the Oshikoto Region is up in arms with village sub-headman Job Shangadi, who he claims has given away his mahangu field to the Namibian ambassador to Nigeria, Fillemon Kambala, without his consent.

According to Amunyela, who has also another homestead at Onangombe village near Oshitayi, this happened last year in December.
Amunyela told The Namibian, that he and his family went to plough their Omutsegwondjamba mahangu field in December and found his homestead dismantled, with poles and corrugated iron sheets lying around and most of his belongings stolen.
Neighbours told him that a certain Fillemon Kambala had been given the land by village sub-headman Job Shangadi, apparently because Kambala has been appointed by the Ondonga Traditional Authority as headman of Omutsegwondjamba.
According to the Ondonga tradition, a village headman must have a homestead in that particular village.
Apparently Kambala, who is from Okalumbu village 50 kilometres away, had no house at Omutsegwondjamba village, and as a result he was given Amunyela’s land by the Ondonga Traditional Authority through sub-headman Shangadi.
Amunyela reported the matter to district senior headman Andreas Uukule, who told him that he knew nothing about it and referred Amunyela back to Shangadi.
Amunyela claims that Shangadi has refused to meet him or talk to him on the phone.
Amunyela said he had reported the matter to the Oshivelo Police, and was planning to lay a charge against sub-headman Shangadi.
The Oshivelo Police Commander, Inspector Bernhard Nghuulivali, yesterday confirmed that Amunyela had mentioned such a case to the Police but said he had not opened a case yet.
When approached by The Nami-bian, Shangadi denied having given Amunyela’s land to Kambala.
He said Kambala had been appointed as headman by the Ondonga Traditional Authority and they must have given him the land. He did mention, however, that Amunyela had not ploughed the field in question in recent years.
The Secretary of the Ondonga Traditional Authority, Joseph Asino, said the case was discussed by the Ondonga Traditional Council recently and was referred to Onyaanya district senior headman Andreas Uukule for further attention.
The Namibian could not get hold of Ambassador Kambala at the time of going to press.