Denver Kisting
18 May 2011
Aletta Nguvauva yesterday charged that although she has no leadership experience, she is “suitably qualified” to lead the Ovambanderu community.
Nguvauva made her maiden speech as the paramount chief designate of this deeply divided community after she succeeded her son, Keharanjo II Nguvauva, who committed suicide on April 8.
Aletta Nguvauva is the first woman to fill this seat.
Her appointment comes in the wake of a dispute about the Ovambanderu chieftainship which was pending in the High Court at the time of Keharanjo’s death.
At the centre of the protracted battle were Keharanjo and his older half-brother, Deputy Fisheries Minister Kilus Nguvauva.
The two half-siblings were at each other’s throats about the throne since their father, Munjuku Nguvauva, died in 2008.
When the Keharanjo faction announced his mother’s appointment about a fortnight ago, the Kilus group claimed that she is neither a queen nor a paramount chief.
Two members of that faction’s supreme council, who spoke to The Namibian on condition of anonymity, both confirmed that their council will not recognise Aletta Nguvauva as the leader of this deeply divided community.
Gerson Katjirua is the current acting chief of the Kilus group.
In her debut address in Katutura yesterday, Aletta Nguvauva called for unity among the Ovambanderu.
“I would also like to extend a hand of peace to the Ovambanderu to try and heal the rift. Because of my invitation to try and close the rift, I call on those under me to desist from bad language, especially on the airwaves.”
Senior Ovambanderu chief Erastus Kahuure yesterday said: “We are happy to reiterate our simple, bold, loud and clear position communicated to you on April 30 that the mother of the late paramount chief Keharanjo II Nguvauva in the person of Queen Aletta Karikondua Nguvauva was unanimously recommended, appointed and endorsed by the Nguvauva clan, supreme council and Ovambanderu general assembly respectively as paramount chief designate of the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority.”
According to Kahuure, “the suitability, experience and eligibility of the two brothers and one sister of the late paramount chief, who are the rightful heirs to the throne, were subjected to serious scrutiny and examination, and it was resolved that the predicament in which the Ovambanderu traditional community finds itself dictates that Aletta Karikondua Nguvauva as a matter of necessity must ascend to the leadership of the Ovambanderu community.”
Regarding the fact that Aletta Nguvauva is the first woman paramount chief, Kahuure said: “The ascendance of queen Aletta Nguvauva to the Ovambanderu throne despite many century-old patriarchal tendencies that have penetrated our various communities has the blessing and is sanctioned by legal instruments such as [the] Ovambanderu constitution, the Traditional Authorities Act, and [the] Namibian Constitution that encourage the promotion of affirmative action. It is also culturally justified if viewed from the Namibian and southern African context where women are also traditional leaders in their own right.”
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Continued here:
Aletta Nguvauva Takes the Throne