Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
The Ovambanderu Constitutional Challenge, or the “dragging of the Ovambanderu Chief in chains before the court” as a section of the Ovambanderu refers to it, will have its second and what I would consider the real sequel in the High Court on Monday.
Not that I am optimistic that any thing good would emerge. Both parties to the equation have had ample time to resolve this matter within/without resorting to the court. I would not say that they failed. They simply did not seem to have the necessary willpower, goodwill and faith that this matter deserves. In fact, the High Court gave the two sides time to come to terms last May and that should have paved the way for the two groups to eventually see the light at the end of the tunnel which they haven’t.
Simply, the Ovambanderu leaders have not only failed their people but also betrayed the trust the people have put in them as leaders. Through sheer intransigence, stubbornness, entrenched parochial positions that ultimately have nothing to do with the broader good and well-being of this community, they have failed to display the necessary leadership in this matter. Despite this, the ringleaders still have the audacity to propagate, especially on the NBC Otjiherero Language Service that has become the convenient channel for their nonsensical venom, the Big Lie that one or the other side has a more justified cause.
Propagandists from both sides with the dawn of the court stand-off that either see as the day of reckoning, have been inundating the NBC service with the hearts and minds of campaigns coated in half-truths. The pretence at correctness seems to have neither compunction nor any semblance of concern for the well-being of this community, let alone its future. Most disheartening is that impoverished members are expected to dig deep in their pockets to prod what are partially the personal ambitions of leaders, if not to cover their shortsightedness, ineptitude, leadership inabilities and lack of foresight. Not only that, but the masses moved by blind loyalty to their leaders as undeserving of their loyalty as they may be, are being lured to Windhoek for the court case. Hell knows why serve as pawns in the numbers game that is unfolding and to boost the ego of the leaders.
I see little hope in the outcome of the court verdict whatever it is. One can only see the court verdict giving credence to hardened positions, enhancing the haughtiness of the leaders and entrenching the Big Lie thereby further drifting the two sides apart. The sustained show of lack of concern and hardened myopic and self-centred attitudes are pointers to the likely scenario I am envisaging. I cannot foresee any rapprochement at worse or reconciliation and atonement at best. This is a civilised civil war. It is a win or lose situation. I cannot see how the Ovambanderu community can be the winner whatever the verdict of the court is? The leaders had this opportunity with the first sequel in the High Court which they forfeited. Now, the daggers have been drawn for the final straw. This straw is for one or the other faction to run away with the spoils. There is no way either can expect to share the spoils if the verdict goes its way when neither was prepared to share the spoils when the opportunity was there and the attitudes had not reached a simmering boiling point it has if only in terms of pride and shame.
I foresee a winner-takes-all scenario. This is not a point one would wish the community to reach. But by virtue of the matter now finally to be resolved in the High Court, one can say this is unfortunately the point we have finally reached. Should the court declare the disputed Ovambanderu Constitution null and void because the correct procedures was not followed in its adoption, I don’t see “victor” welcoming the “vanquished” without some vindictiveness as if the court verdict may not be vindictive enough. The Ovambanderu community would never be the same community again who would easily bury the hatchet to move on. This opportunity was already available but the community or its leaders shunned it without hesitation. I find it hard to believe this time around they would go that route. The seed of dissension, mistrust and haughtiness with some now cast as outcasts and some as the real blue blood Ovambanderu, has been sown to such an extent that one sees the court verdict having little either way.
Conversely, should the court opine that the Constitution was adopted procedurally and is thus valid, to what extent would those who have been challenging it swallow their pride? I don’t think it would be that easy and surely they would need some courage and fortitude especially in the face of the immaturity some members of this community have displayed in the past and continue to do. Some vindictiveness is likely to follow either way depending on the court’s verdict and that could make life difficult for the community to live happily ever after.
I see the only thing saving the situation when the court comes up with some middle-ground verdict. A middle-ground verdict in this sense would be one that would still leave an opportunity open for the two groups to seek an amicable solution. However, unlike in the preliminary verdict last May when the verdict of the court was left open to various interpretations by the two sides, it must be expressive. It may not be the business of the High Court given the litigious nature of the matter but it may not be late for the two sides to sound their intentions in this regard to the court. One hears of eleventh-hour delegations running to the leaders of the country and ruling party to seek intervention. There is nothing that the two leaders can do unless the two sides are willing to solve the matter. They are the only people who hold the key. Not the respective two leaders of the country and ruling party or the court. Otherwise, the verdict that the court may deliver ultimately in this matter may be the proverbial last straw that breaks the back of the Ovambanderu community. Neither side, especially the leaders can at the end of the day blame anybody else but themselves. Definitely, I for one shall never hold such leaders in high esteem. Failure by the leaders to have this matter resolved may have been the last straw in the erosion of my confidence in the leaders of the Ovambanderu, whatever side of the dispute they are.