{"id":18305,"date":"2022-05-02T15:04:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T15:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities"},"modified":"2022-05-02T15:15:19","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T15:15:19","slug":"dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities","title":{"rendered":"Don’t go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>STATE House has defended remarks by president Hage Geingob, including the head of state telling those involved in traditional disputes \u201cdon’t go to white courts\u201d.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot interfere in traditional elections. That is not our business. If there is a tradition, use the tradition. There must be a way to elect a person according to traditional customs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd don’t go to white courts, because our courts are basically former white courts,\u201d Geingob said at State House on Wednesday during a courtesy visit by the Ondonga Traditional Authority chief Fillemon Nangolo.<\/p>\n

State House press secretary Alfredo Hengari says the president made a distinction between customary law and tradition as far as it relates to disputes within traditional authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president advised that these disputes must be solved in accordance with the customs and traditions of the communities, as opposed to the modern court system of our republic,\u201d Hengari said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegrettably, you are inventing a fault line since the comment made in that specific context does not in any way undermine the judiciary. The president is a custodian of our constitutional democracy and will continue to protect the integrity of our processes, systems and institutions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

When he made the comments on Wednesday, Geingob was apparently referring to a recent attack launched on minister of urban and rural development Erastus Uutoni, who was warned to stop interfering in Ovaherero affairs.<\/p>\n

This comes after the ministry failed to recognise Mutjinde Katjiua as the Ovaherero paramount chief, while recognising Ovitoto chief Vipuira Kapuuo, who is the chairperson of the chief’s council.<\/p>\n

Katjiua’s supporters recently delivered a petition to the ministry that was addressed to Uutoni. They alleged that the recent conduct by the ministry indicates that there is a deliberate move to destabilise the Ovaherero community.<\/p>\n

The petition read by chief Ruben Rukambe said leadership cannot be imposed on the traditional authority. Geingob said people are fighting and come to the minister, and when he acts, they say he is interfering and dividing people, and that is not fair.<\/p>\n

Geingob added that Namibians belong to different tribes, ethnic groups and that they must be proud of that. He said when people become tribalistic, that is the time when something is wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis also applies to racism. Nothing works with racism. It is a big country and we must hold hands as Namibians. We are a unified Namibia, unified with different cultures,’ he said. Lawyer Norman Tjombe yesterday said the courts are Namibian courts, established by the Namibian Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not white courts, and they do not adjudicate on white or foreign law, but adjudicate on Namibian laws, including customary laws of Namibian traditional communities,\u201d Tjombe said.<\/p>\n

He added that by entertaining disputes of traditional communities, the courts are not interfering, but it is the right of anyone to approach the courts should they believe that their rights or interests are affected.<\/p>\n

Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanya said the president is correct to say that Namibian courts are like those of the whites. Kamwanya added that the formal justice system Namibia has is inherited from the colonial power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe justice system is inherited from Roman-Dutch law, which is the whites’ justice system. The president is right to say so,\u201d Kamwanya said. He added that the judicial system in the country is a bit foreign in comparison to the African justice system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two justice systems in Namibia that are the formal court and the traditional court. All these are operating guided by the Constitution,\u201d he said. Kamwanya added that people might find it weird, but it is right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not speaking on behalf of the president, but he is not undermining the justice system in that way. They are our courts, though their roots are deeply of the white courts. It is in terms of the Constitution,\u201d Kamwanya added.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. STATE House has defended remarks by president Hage Geingob, including the head of state telling those involved in traditional disputes \u201cdon’t go to white courts\u201d. \u201cWe cannot interfere in traditional elections. That is not our business. If there is a tradition, use the tradition. There must be a way to elect a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":18304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-18305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nDon't go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"STATE House has defended remarks by president Hage Geingob, including the head of state telling those involved in tra ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don't go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"STATE House has defended remarks by president Hage Geingob, including the head of state telling those involved in tra ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-02T15:04:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-02T15:15:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"546\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Don’t go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-02T15:04:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-02T15:15:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities\"},\"wordCount\":663,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities\",\"name\":\"Don't go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities - Namibia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-02T15:04:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-02T15:15:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"STATE House has defended remarks by president Hage Geingob, including the head of state telling those involved in tra ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":546,\"caption\":\"Don't go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Don’t go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\",\"name\":\"Namibia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Don't go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities - Namibia","description":"STATE House has defended remarks by president Hage Geingob, including the head of state telling those involved in tra ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Don't go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities","og_description":"STATE House has defended remarks by president Hage Geingob, including the head of state telling those involved in tra ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities","og_site_name":"Namibia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-05-02T15:04:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-02T15:15:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":546,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Don’t go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities","datePublished":"2022-05-02T15:04:25+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-02T15:15:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities"},"wordCount":663,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg","keywords":["africa press","Africa Press-Namibia","namibia"],"articleSection":["all news","head lines","homepage-english","policy","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities","name":"Don't go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities - Namibia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg","datePublished":"2022-05-02T15:04:25+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-02T15:15:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"STATE House has defended remarks by president Hage Geingob, including the head of state telling those involved in tra ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/05\/postQueueImg_4-626ff565d5616.jpg","width":750,"height":546,"caption":"Don't go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/dont-go-to-white-courts-geingob-tells-traditional-authorities#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Don’t go to white courts, Geingob tells traditional authorities"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/","name":"Namibia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}