Africa-Press – Namibia.
Chairperson of the Ovaherero Chiefs’ Council (OCC) Vipua Kapuuo is challenging Mutjinde Katjiua’s claim to the position of paramount chief (PC).
The matter commenced in the Windhoek High Court on Tuesday.
Kapuuo is seeking relief in the form of a declaration that, as per the Ovaherero customary law, the chairperson of the Chief ’s Council (CC) becomes the acting paramount chief of the Ovaherero Traditional Community upon the death or incapacitation of the PC.
The application follows the death of the Ovaherero PC Advocate Vekuii Rukoro in 2021.
Kapuuo said upon Rukoro’s death, the chairperson of the CC is declared as the acting PC of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) in terms of Ovaherero customary law, tradition and protocol.
Kapuuo is further seeking relief from the court through the invalidation of a purported CC meeting held from 10 to 12 December 2021 at Onderombapa.
He calls it unlawful, as it was not called by the CC.
He is asking the court to review and set aside the decisions made at this meeting, insisting that, as chairperson of the CC, he is the rightful acting PC.
That meeting reportedly endorsed Katjiua as the Ovaherero PC. Kapuuo’s lawyer Raymond Heathcote claim that Katjiua assumed this title through a “coup d’état”.
Heathcote argued that the OTA functions like any other structured institution with rules, and that the deputy should automatically succeed the paramount chief upon the chief ’s death.
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