Uukwambi chief loses bid to silence activist

The Oshakati High Court last week dismissed an urgent application brought by Uukwambi Traditional Authority (UTA) chief Herman Ndilimani Iipumbu seeking to bar social activist Tangy Mike Tshilongo from posting alleged defamatory statements about him.

The case was heard by judge David Munsu, who ruled that the application by Iipumbu and the Uukwambi Traditional Authority be dismissed with costs.

The judge also ordered that the matter be removed from the court roll, bringing the case to a close.

This means the chief’s attempt to compel Tshilongo to delete social media posts and refrain from further comments has failed.

Long-running dispute

The legal battle extends beyond a social media spat. It is linked to a century-old dispute over the Uukwambi throne.

The Uukwambi kingdom was last ruled by Iipumbu ya Shilongo, who was deposed and exiled by colonial authorities in 1932.

Since then, the community has been led by chiefs rather than kings.

Iipumbu has led the Uukwambi Traditional Authority for 40 years and is officially recognised by government.

The royal claim

A group calling itself the Uukwambi Royal Family argues that the current leadership does not descend from the royal bloodline.

Its members say they want to restore the historic kingship, similar to the restoration of a monarch among the Uukwanyama after independence.

The social media spark

The legal case began in January when Iipumbu sued Tshilongo, a vocal campaigner for the royal family.

The chief accused Tshilongo of posting "defamatory and slanderous" material on Facebook and TikTok.

The chief’s lawyers had previously demanded N$150 000 in damages, arguing that Tshilongo’s posts, which frequently referred to him as an “illegitimate leader”, had harmed his dignity.

Tshilongo responded that he simply “did not have that kind of money.”

A defeated interdict

In his urgent application, the chief asked the court to order Tshilongo to stop publishing any further posts relating to him or the Uukwambi community and to order the removal of existing content from his Facebook and TikTok accounts.

By dismissing the case, the court signalled that the Uukwambi Traditional Authority had failed to show why the matter was so urgent that it could not proceed through normal legal channels or why the proposed gagging order was justified.

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