Patience Makwele
A decades-old land dispute in the Zambezi region has flared up again, with the Masubia khuta (tribal court) warning that renewed confrontations between families could result in injuries or loss of life.
The dispute involves four families: the Jimu, Muninjahi, Ndivi and Jojo families, and has passed through traditional and formal courts for decades.
Senior Masubia induna (traditional council) Albius Mwala said the tribal court could no longer deal with the matter because it had moved beyond its jurisdiction.
“This issue, it is no longer with us,” Mwala said.
According to Mwala, the traditional court summoned the four families to the Bukalo Traditional headquarters on 14 September 2026, with police and security officials present, after repeated attempts to resolve the dispute failed to produce a lasting solution.
Mwala said police were deliberately brought in because previous gatherings had become confrontational.
“We called these people in the presence of police officers because if we had called them on our own, it was going to end up aggressive just like it has always ended,” he said.
Mwala said the families were reminded of previous higher court decisions and told that the traditional authority could no longer reopen the dispute.
He said the parties were advised to use the appropriate legal channels if they wanted to challenge existing decisions.
The meeting nevertheless became quarrelsome, according to Mwala, who said police and security officials had to intervene.
“If it had not been for the intervention of security officials and police officers who were on site, things would have been very bad,” he said.
Mwala said the tribal court later received reports of another confrontation on the disputed land, with alleged damage to farms and crops.
“That very same day after the hearing, there was an altercation between the families and cassava farms [gardens] and crops were damaged,” he said.
The regional police deputy commissioner was contacted for confirmation of the reported confrontation and police intervention but declined to comment, saying he was outside the region.
The latest concerns are also contained in a message seen by the Windhoek Observer, written by Masubia traditional ngambela [advisor] Raphael Mbala to Zambezi governor Kabula Simushi.
Mbala said the four families were summoned to Bukalo on 14 September in the presence of officials, police and the full Masubia council.
He said rulings were read to the parties, including decisions from the Katima Mulilo Magistrate’s Court, the High Court and what he described as a recent Supreme Court ruling.
However, the reported Supreme Court ruling could not be independently verified from the published court records reviewed for this report.
According to Mbala, the parties were told that the tribal court could no longer deal with the dispute and should abide by the court decisions.
Mbala alleged that tensions continued after the meeting.
He said his wife, Regina Mbala, was “chased from a cassava field about 500 to 600 metres from their village by men” he identified as being from the Ndivi and Jojo families.
He further alleged that “another group went to a cattle post belonging to Oscar Kamwi Likando, threatened the cattle herder and took his cellphone before deleting photographs showing damage to a kraal.”
Mbala said the men threatened to return at night.
He also alleged that a senior police officer from Katima Mulilo went to inspect the reported damage but was prevented from reaching the scene by members of the Muninjahi family.
Mbala described the situation as “very serious” and warned that it could lead to “loss of life or injuries” if not addressed.
A source close to the Jojo family, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the dispute, said the family was tired of the continued conflict and wanted the matter resolved through the courts.
“We want peace, we are tired of fighting,” the source said.
The source said the Jojo and Muninjahi families regarded themselves as being on the same side of the dispute and maintained that the contested land belonged to their forefathers.
“We are one family fighting for one thing. Which is that piece of land, which belongs to us, a piece of land that belongs to our forefathers,” the source said.
The source said the families were prepared to allow the matter to proceed to the Supreme Court or whichever higher legal forum has jurisdiction.
“If the matter is to go to the Supreme Court, or whichever court it is going to go, then let it go,” the source said.
The source also said several people had relocated from the disputed area because they were tired of the prolonged conflict.
Claims by the source linking deaths and illnesses among people involved in the dispute to alleged witchcraft could not be independently verified and have not been treated as established facts.
Zambezi Regional Council chairperson Bernard Sisamu questioned whether further government intervention was necessary, given the dispute’s long history before traditional and formal legal structures.
Sisamu was responding to Mbala’s appeal for intervention by the governor and several ministers.
“The matter has already gone through the traditional structures and the courts,” Sisamu said. “So what further intervention are they looking for?”
He questioned why the parties continued seeking intervention outside the processes that had already dealt with the dispute.
“If they are not satisfied with the decisions that were made, they must use the legal channels available to them,” Sisamu said.
Sisamu said the complexity of the matter should not result in repeated attempts to reopen issues that had already been dealt with through established channels.
“We cannot continue reopening the same matter every time one of the parties is unhappy,” he said.
Minister of urban and rural development James Sankwasa was contacted for comment on the tribal court’s appeal and the ministry’s position but was unreachable by the time of publication.
The High Court record confirms a long-running dispute involving the Jimu, Ndjivi and Jojo families.
In Mbala v Mudabeti and Others, delivered on 9 August 2023, the court recorded that the Bukalo Royal Khuta ruled on the land-boundary dispute in 1997 in favour of the Ndjivi and Jojo families.
That decision was overturned in 1998 by the Kashandi, an appellate body under Masubia customs and traditions.
The 1998 decision was later challenged before the Zambezi Communal Land Board appeal tribunal, which in 2022 overturned it and purported to reinstate the 1997 decision.
The High Court subsequently reviewed and set aside the 2022 tribunal decision.
The court found that the statutory tribunal did not have the power under the Communal Land Reform Act to determine the 1998 customary-law decision, which concerned a boundary dispute between families.
Mwala said records held by the Khuta indicate that the dispute goes back even further, with documents dating to 1927 and 1986 forming part of its history.
For the Masubia Khuta, however, the position is now clear.
“There is nothing which can be done from our side,” Mwala said.
