5 January 2009
Windhoek — A storm appears to have been brewing slowly and quietly within the Royal House of Chief Kambazembi, with the former secretary of this traditional authority finding himself in the wilderness for months amid uncertainty on whether he has been suspended or expelled.
Although to date the secretary, Mujazu Urika, has yet to officially hear the charges against him as no formal charges have been communicated to him three months or so after his purported suspension-cum-expulsion, New Era has learnt that he has courted the wrath of a section of the Chief's Council by allegedly running the authority's administrative matters single-handedly without the knowledge and approval of the Chief's Council.
Urika has also been targeted by a faction of the Chief's Council that has ganged up to oust him for daring to speak to New Era, thereby raising his own star to the dismay and jealousy of his would-be detractors.
In our August edition of the Indigenous Languages Supplement, New Era carried an interview profiling Urika and his involvement with the Kambazembi Traditional Authority, dating back to 1999.
It appears the article provided more ammunition to his detractors who could no longer stand his star rising further.
Soon, word of the stripping of Urika of many of the roles he had been fulfilling in the traditional authority, among them as Secretary to the Authority as well as the spokesperson of the authority, went round. New Era is aware of a letter from the Royal House of Chief Kambazembi dated October 15, 2008 and signed by the chief, Uaakutjo Kambazembi. The letter reads in part "you have been suspended without pay until further notice". It was effective from October 14, 2008.
Urika thinks he has been targeted for no reason other than striving to better the administration of the authority by, among others, divorcing the Office of the Chief from the Okakarara district office of the authority. Hitherto, the two offices have been operating from one office in Okakarara. He says he was merely carrying out a resolution of the authority taken at a meeting held on June 1, 2008. This meeting resolved, among others, that the "Okakarara office must become independent and the office of the secretary and that of the Chief must become one".
To implement the resolution, the secretary approached donors to help with installing power lines in the office of the Chief at the Onguatjindu homestead in Okakarara.
However, his would-be detractors intervened and stopped the move, claiming it did not have the sanction of the authority. Urika insists he was carrying through a resolution of the authority as per the meeting of June 1. Meanwhile, the money donated for this purpose and deposited with the Central North Regional Electricity Distribution (Cenored), was claimed by the anti-Urika faction of the authority. However, Urika demanded the money, N$10 000 from Nored and gave it back to the donor. Nored's public relations officer, Nizla Kozonguizi, said nobody owes anybody anything as Nored has recouped the N$10 000 from the authority, while the N$10 000 from the donor has been returned to him.
Also a 250-square metre plot which the authority secured with the help of the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development had to be cancelled as the establishment of a separate office for the Chief and Secretary has become stalled. Because of his suspension-cum-expulsion from the authority, Urika, who has been one of the authority's representatives in the Council of Traditional Leaders since 2000, could not serve in this role at last year's session of the Council. Meanwhile, Urika has referred the matter of his suspension to his lawyers.
There is, however, more to Urika's suspension-cum-expulsion as Secretary of the Royal House of Chief Kambazembi than meets the eye. At the root of it has been an ongoing feud between two factions, one said to be anti-Chief Kuaima Riruako, and the other pro-Chief Kuaima Riruako who is also from the Royal House of Kambazembi. The two factions have been jostling for power within the clan lest either assumes ascendancy within the authority.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the Chief's Council held on November 29, mandated Dr Zed Ngavirue to convene a full meeting of the Chief's Council to look into this matter in view of the difficulty that has been experienced in convening a full meeting of the Council given the two factions with ad hoc meetings apparently taking place only within the sphere of influence of one or the other faction.
Ngavirue said the suspension of Urika took place in his absence and that of other Council members, thus he was not familiar with the circumstance of Urika's suspension.
However, a meeting scheduled for November last year to look into the matter had to be postponed due to the death of the uncle of Chief Kambazembi in Opuwo.
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