Africa-Press – Namibia. THE chief’s council of the Shambyu community in Kavango East may not dictate to the minister of urban and rural development which candidates he should consider for official recognition as Shambyu traditional leaders, a judge pointed out in a judgement delivered in the Windhoek High Court on Thursday.
If there are more than one candidate for designation as a traditional leader, the minister should consider each nominated person in their own right regarding their suitability for official recognition, and should not be “spoon-fed” a candidate by the Shambyu Chief’s Council, which decided to rally behind one of the would-be leaders, judge Thomas Masuku said in the latest judgement on a drawn-out leadership dispute in the Shambyu community.
The judge found that the chief’s council of the Shambyu Traditional Authority acted outside its powers by refusing to complete and sign an application which one of the contenders for the chieftaincy of the Shambyu community, Maria Haindaka, needed to submit to minister of urban and rural development Peya Mushelenga to be recognised as traditional leader of her community.
Masuku also found that Mushelenga allowed the Shambyu Chief’s Council to dictate to him who the designated traditional leader of the Shambyu community should be. That could not be allowed, the judge remarked.
The findings were made in a judgement on an application in which Haindaka asked the court to set aside Mushelenga’s decision in November 2019 to approve the application of leadership rival Sofia Mundjembwe Kanyetu to be designated as chief of the Shambyu Traditional Authority.
Masuku set aside Mushelenga’s decision and referred the matter back to him, to decide how to resolve the leadership dispute in the Shambyu community in terms of the Traditional Authorities Act and to designate a new traditional leader for the community.
The judge also set aside the Shambyu Chief’s Council’s decision in November 2019 to not sign Haindaka’s application to be designated as traditional leader.
The chief’s council should, within 15 days, assist Haindaka to complete the required application form for her designation as chief, and should do everything necessary to enable her to file her application with the minister, Masuku ordered.
Haindaka has been nominated by the Mukwahepo clan of the Shambyu community’s Vakwankora royal family to succeed the late Shambyu chief Angelina Matumbo Ribebe, who died in June 2015. The royal family’s Mwengere clan, from which all of the Shambyu chiefs since the 1940s have come, nominated Mundjembwe to succeed the late chief.
Mushelenga, in June 2018, decided that an election should be held to choose Ribebe’s successor as traditional leader. The election among members of the Shambyu community above the age of 18 was scheduled to take place in August 2018, but Haindaka went to court and obtained an interdict stopping the poll.
Haindaka claimed that in terms of Shambyu customary law only members of the Vakwankora royal family were entitled to take part in decisions about the succession of their community’s traditional leadership. She also said in a sworn statement that, in the absence of a voters’ roll for the Shambyu community, the doors were open for poll fraud if an election were to be held among all adult members of the community.
Ordering the election not to go ahead, deputy judge president Hosea Angula referred the matter back to Mushelenga to decide how to resolve the leadership dispute.
After receiving a complete application only for the designation of Mundjembwe as Shambyu chief, Mushelenga asked Haindaka in October 2019 to rectify the defects in her application, which was not complete. However, the Shambyu Chief’s Council refused to complete and sign her nomination as required by the Traditional Authorities Act, and Mushelenga then went ahead and in November 2019 approved Mundjembwe’s application to be designated as Shambyu chief.
Haindaka again went to court with an urgent application, and in November 2019 obtained a temporary interdict stopping the designation of Mundjembwe as chief.
Haindaka was represented by Tuhafeni Muhongo and Lovisa Ihalwa, instructed by Appolos Shimakeleni. Sakeus Akweenda represented the minister, the Shambyu Traditional Authority and the chief’s council, on instructions from the government attorney’s office. Mundjembwe was represented by Mbushandje Ntinda.
