Staff Writer
The Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) group in favour of Mutjinde Katjiua who lost his court battle for the supremacy of the authority against the chairman of OTA, Vipuira Kapuuo has vowed that the battle is not over.
They pledged to continue fighting for the interest of the Ovaherero people. The group said this in a statement shortly after the High Court dismissed an urgent application in which Katjiua interdicted Kapuuo not to interfere with the running of OTA.
The application was removed from the court roll and Katjiua was order to pay Kapuuo’s legal costs, including one instructing and two instructed attorneys.
“The war will continue, and battle will be fought at various fronts. The urgent application was such a battle in the many we have waged and continue to wage. But the war is not over. Ultimately no lie shall prosper in the face of the truth and justice,” the statement said.
The OTA also stated that while they respect the outcome of the urgent application, the decision
would have detrimental consequences for the Ovaherero community. “We respect that judgement although we regret it as it will have undesired impacts on our community as Chief Kapuuo will continue to drive the division in our community with the apparent connivance of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development and imbalanced coverage of the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC),” read the statement.
On 30 March 2022 Katjiua who was appointed as the paramount chief and thereafter applied for an
urgent interdict to have the court restrain Kapuuo from proceeding with irregularly and unlawfully purporting to be the representative of the OvaHerero Traditional Authority representative and cancel the scheduled meeting of 7 to 8 April 2022.
The meeting that was scheduled for last weekend was expected to identify those willing to compete for the paramount chieftainship.
Judge Herman Oosthuizen who delivered the judgement said Katjiua’s application lacked the locus standi for him to bring the application as the paramount chief.
Approached for comment Katjiua said he was in a meeting and had not responded to questions sent to him by the time of publication.
