Court to rule on Ovambanderu case

A decision to allow or stop the widow and the son of late Ovambanderu Paramount Chief Munjuku II Nguvauva from laying a wreath at his grave in Okahandja, is expected to be made public this week.
Acting High Court Judge Collins Parker will hand down the ruling on the matter Thursday at about 09:00.
He heard submissions by lawyers of the applicant (Ovambanderu Traditional Authority) and respondents (Aletha Nguvauva and her son Mutima Rikarera Nguvauva) on 11 June.
The leadership of the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority brought an urgent application to the Windhoek High Court on 3 June of this year, asking it to issue an interdict against Aletha and Mutima, barring them from holding a wreath-laying ceremony planned for the weekend of 3 June.
A senior traditional councillor and acting chief of the Ovambanderu community, Gerson Katjirua, claimed in papers before court that an earlier visit which Aletha made to the graves of her late husband and revered Ovambanderu leader Kahimemua Nguvauva in May 2015, allegedly violated the sanctity of the two leaders’ graves.
Katjirua also claimed that Aletha visited the grave of her late husband without first having gone through the required traditional and customary rituals of the Ovambanderu community.
Windhoek-based lawyer Else Angula, who represented the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority, argued that no one is allowed to visit the said graves, unless it is during the annual commemoration held at the site in mid-June every year.
However, Advocate John Paul Jones, who is being assisted by Doris Hans-Kaumbi, asked the court to allow his client to visit her husband’s grave at Okahandja, saying she will comply with all the required traditional and customary rituals of the Ovambanderu people for the laying of the wreath at the grave.
Meanwhile, the Ovambanderu community’s 2016 annual commemoration of its ancestors, heroes and heroines took place on 12 June, which was the date in 1896 when the late chief Kahimemua Nguvauva was executed by a German colonial troop firing squad at Okahandja.
Angula was assisted by Saima Nambinga.
Advocate Jones represented Aletha and her son on the instructions of the Ueitele and Hans law firm.
NAMPA