OTA Chiefs Council meeting to go ahead
With the High Court reserving its ruling in the urgent application by Professor Mutjinde Katjiua to stop the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) Chiefs Council chairperson, Chief Vipua Kapuuo, from holding a council meeting at Okandjira this weekend, the event is set to go on as planned.
The judgment in the matter will only be handed down on Tuesday next week.
According, Uazuva Kaumbi, spokesperson and advisor to Kapuuo, it was clear the judge was not convinced that the matter was urgent, otherwise he would have granted an interim order.
“We are going ahead with the meeting because there is no interdict,” he said.
“The judge also asked us to postpone the meeting out of the kindness of our hearts but we cannot hold back the meeting. The judge understood when we told him the meeting was going ahead,” said Kaumbi.
The matter, heard by High Court Judge Herman Oosthuizen, was postponed to 12 April 2022 for a ruling.
Tug of war
Katjiua also asked the High Court to stop Kapuuo from diverting funds meant for the OTA distributed by MURD and to stop him from acting as the authorised person to deal with administrative matters of the OTA or as the acting paramount chief.
In his founding affidavit, Katjiua charged that Kapuuo wished to overturn decisions that were already taken by the Chiefs Council by convening this Chiefs Council meeting this week, and inducting himself as acting paramount chief.
“If Kapuuo were to succeed in his unlawful conduct, it would render the application instituted by review by himself academic and would have serious reputational damage to the OTA and myself as duly elected paramount chief and not to mention the disharmony and division that is caused by Kapuuo’s undermining the Senate and the Chiefs Council decisions to date,” he said.
Katjiua and Kapuuo are currently in a tug-of-war over the OTA paramount chief position, with Katjiua claiming he was duly elected at Aminuis last month and Kapuuo insisting that his designation as chief was done through an unlawfully constituted process in contravention of the Traditional Authority Act and several Ovaherero customary laws.
According to Kapuuo, these laws dictate that as chair of the Chiefs Council he ought to be acting as paramount chief until a lawful election takes place to replace the late Vekuii Rukoro.
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The judgment in the matter will only be handed down on Tuesday next week.
According, Uazuva Kaumbi, spokesperson and advisor to Kapuuo, it was clear the judge was not convinced that the matter was urgent, otherwise he would have granted an interim order.
“We are going ahead with the meeting because there is no interdict,” he said.
“The judge also asked us to postpone the meeting out of the kindness of our hearts but we cannot hold back the meeting. The judge understood when we told him the meeting was going ahead,” said Kaumbi.
The matter, heard by High Court Judge Herman Oosthuizen, was postponed to 12 April 2022 for a ruling.
Tug of war
Katjiua also asked the High Court to stop Kapuuo from diverting funds meant for the OTA distributed by MURD and to stop him from acting as the authorised person to deal with administrative matters of the OTA or as the acting paramount chief.
In his founding affidavit, Katjiua charged that Kapuuo wished to overturn decisions that were already taken by the Chiefs Council by convening this Chiefs Council meeting this week, and inducting himself as acting paramount chief.
“If Kapuuo were to succeed in his unlawful conduct, it would render the application instituted by review by himself academic and would have serious reputational damage to the OTA and myself as duly elected paramount chief and not to mention the disharmony and division that is caused by Kapuuo’s undermining the Senate and the Chiefs Council decisions to date,” he said.
Katjiua and Kapuuo are currently in a tug-of-war over the OTA paramount chief position, with Katjiua claiming he was duly elected at Aminuis last month and Kapuuo insisting that his designation as chief was done through an unlawfully constituted process in contravention of the Traditional Authority Act and several Ovaherero customary laws.
According to Kapuuo, these laws dictate that as chair of the Chiefs Council he ought to be acting as paramount chief until a lawful election takes place to replace the late Vekuii Rukoro.
[email protected]
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