Namises demands answers from /Khomanin chief

• BY TRACY TAFIRENYIKA

THE head of the /Khomanin technical committee Rosa Namises is demanding answers and is calling upon the /Khomanin traditional chief Juliana Gawanas to come out and respond to the recent land allegations plaguing her community.

Namises among many other aggrieved community members told Confidente this week that the chief must answer to the people regarding the land corruption allegations and stop hiding behind “no comment”.

“I am calling on the chief to not say l have no comment but to speak out and come and tell us about all of these corruption allegations to the people because we all want to know what is happening ,” she stated.

Recently Confidente reported that a member of the /Khomanin Traditional authority at Satan’s Loch, Demoti Timbo, dished out communal land to an outsider Festus Hango illegally for an amount of N$10 000 of which the chief was allegedly aware of.

“There are several corruption events that have happened in the community, for example the trust fund that was paid to her and used for her own gratification and the residents never benefited from this fund. Satan’s Loch belongs to the City of Windhoek and the city has never allowed anyone to resettle people at the land which is now happening, and that is why cases like Hango’s case are emerging and those cases are happening.

“We went against this and therefore that is the reason why they elected me as the chosen /Khomanin community members choice for chief. It is important that we speak out as the /Khomanin people about these corrupt practices that the people are facing for the last 10 years,” Namises elaborated.

Namises went on to state that the community had made several consultations since 2012 to seek solutions for this matter.

“In 2012 after consultations to seek solutions for the way our previous chief was leading and for appointing his daughter as the /Khomanin chief, we approached the Ministry of Local Government and we sent several letters to the traditional leader’s council offices.

With all this effort we ended up in court, we were sent out on a technical basis with the judgment stating that we did not have local study.

“We continued to consult the chief so that we can elect our own chief for 2014 to 2018 as per the Traditional Authorities Act which stipulates that, communities can elect their own traditional chiefs.

The reason behind this was because we did not want our community to face corruption and inappropriate treatment.”

Approached for comment, Chief Gawanas referred Confidente to her special advisor Walter Haseb who explained:

“Firstly you have to understand that Rosa Namises is not the technical head of the community because she is not recognised. She contested to be a chief and she lost out the position with costs. She does not have any legal status in the community and is not allowed because she is not even a representative.

“On the communal land allegations, that the issue is with the police and we will not interfere in that matter.

Anyone in the community is allowed to sell land but nobody in the traditional authority. The queen can allocate land to anyone, but the queen is not allowed to sell land,” he stated