By William Mbangula
Oshakati
A stand-off between Chief Herman Iipumbu of Uukwambi and the residents of Othika village in Omusati Region is set to continue indefinitely, after residents vowed never to allow themselves to be ruled by an imposed village headman.
The rejected headman is a relative of the chief.
On Wednesday, June 6, Chief Iipumbu called a press conference at Uukwangula to clear his name about the allegations contained in the story in the New Era of last Friday, June 1. In that story, the Chairman of Uukwambi Traditional Authority, Iipumbu, was accused of having stage-managed the manipulated appointment of his father’s brother, Abraham Kamutsheetha Iipumbu, to become the headman of Othika, contrary to the customary practice of inheritance.
Iipumbu denied the allegations against him as unfounded and baseless.
According to him, it is not his responsibility to appoint village headmen but his duty is only to appoint the senior headmen of respective districts. He said his relative, Kamutsheetha (who also attended the media briefing), was appointed by the late Senior Headman Wilbard Tshitaatala in 2000. His name (Kamutsheetha) was brought to him after being appointed by Tshitaatala, but he did not make any appointment nor did he influence anyone to appoint him.
Said Iipumbu: “There is nothing in the Traditional Authorities Act which suggests that all the village headmen who were appointed by the deceased senior headman should be removed after their death. If there was a problem in Othika village, this could have been resolved by the late Tshitaatala himself but, since he did not do anything about it, this means everything is in order. After all, there is nothing in the law to prevent Kamutsheetha from heading a village in the district (Uukwambi) of his own father (meaning Iipumbu YaTshirongo who died in 1959).”
Iipumbu added that there is nothing in the law that suggests that if one is born of the village headman he/she has the divine right to inherit the throne from his/her father. What appears to be a contradiction on the part of Iipumbu is the fact that he insists that Kamutsheetha has the right to head a village in Uukwambi, previously led by his father King Iipumbu YaTshirongo who died 48 years ago, while at the same time denying Martin Nambala Angombe the right to inherit the village leadership of Othika, headed by his late father Efraim Iipinge Angombe only some seven years ago.
Iipumbu himself came to power through a protracted power struggle between himself and the nephew of his father (Silas Iipumbu), a certain Isaak Elishi.
During the media briefing, Iipumbu became more agitated with this reporter after the latter distributed photos of his inauguration 22 years ago to the media. He did not want this reporter to take down the results of the election between himself and Elishi for the position of Senior Headman. He claimed it was private information.
He aggressively grabbed the photos from the reporter. The results were 195 in his favour and 156 for Elishi. The election was conducted under the control and supervision of the former Ovambo Bantustan Administration, led by Peter Kalangula. He became the overall Chief of Uukwambi in 1991.
Also in attendance were the disgruntled headman of Othika village, Martin Nambala, his secretary Toivo Iipumbu, and village spokesperson Junias Nampindi Ndakola. They did not get the chance to speak, although almost everyone else who attended the briefing was given the floor. He claimed that the media conference was called by himself to give his side of the story but not to others who have already spoken to the media.
Surprisingly, after the media briefing, he followed the Othika residents outside and threatened them in the presence of reporters with unspecified action before he summoned them (residents) back into the conference room to give them a dressing-down.
One notable figure at the media conference was Lovisa Nashilongo Tshitaatala, the current senior headman of Olupembana under whom Othika village falls. Nashilongo, who is a teacher at Ogongo, inherited the position from her father, Wilbard Tshitaatala, who died on March 25, 2002.
Addressing the conference, she said her take-over of the reins at Olupembana district does not mean she has come to destroy what was there but she wanted to continue with the existing leadership structure.
Asked whether she had ever visited Othika village to listen to the grievances of the people, she said she had not done so but that the residents themselves visited her house. A letter dated June 1, 2007 addressed to Nashilongo from Othika residents was read, in which the residents rejected Kamutsheetha as a village headman of Othika, saying he threatens people, is a colonizer, has no leadership qualities. They also complained about the land ownership registration forms signed by Kamutsheetha who is not recognized by them.
The residents said: “We only narrated the abovementioned characteristics of Kamutsheetha for your own information, but the most important thing and the main purpose of writing you is to invite you to Othika village in order to come and confirm Martin Nambala in his position as the legitimate headman of Othika.”
Nashilongo did not react to the content of the letter at the time it was read to the media, although New Era was reliably informed after the briefing – and when the residents were summoned back into the conference room – that she had declined the invitation.
This is the second letter to be written to the traditional leaders since the dispute started seven years ago. The first one, dated October 7, 2000, was addressed to the late Senior Headman Wilbard Tshitaatala and Uukwambi Traditional Authority.
The controversial Nashilongo was in the news recently after callers to the NBC radio complained about her habit of leaving learners in the classroom to attend to traditional matters at Uukwangula, some 50??????’??