Simon Nghidiwakusha, a village headman of Onamafila, resorting under the Ondonga Traditional Authority, has taken the traditional authority to the High Court after he was removed from the position he has occupied since 1985.
In the court documents, Nghidiwakusha said he was removed from his position in September 2021.
He alleges in the court documents that at the time of his removal, the former spokesperson of the Ondonga Traditional Authority, the late Kashona Malulu summoned him his village secretary, Loini Shaanika, and deputy village headman Barthlomeus Kayofa to the authority’s office at Ondangwa.
Nghidiwakusha said Malulu told him because he had allocated communal land to the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), he had to be dismissed with immediate effect.
According to the court documents, Nghidiwakusha has also been accused of trying to mobilise the Onamafila community to kill the cluster headman of the Ombulu district, Joseph Nghitutuka.
According to a letter Ohauwanye village secretary Rachel Shimwaafeni wrote Nghidiwakusha in September 2021, Nghidiwakusha is also accused of allocating land to five new households at Ohauwanye village, more land to five households at Omushai village, and another piece of land to a household at Onalusheshete.
He was then ordered to surrender his official village date stamp.
Nghidiwakusha wants the court to declare his removal unlawful, null and void, and for it to be set aside, saying Nghitutuka has no power to revoke the appointment of a headman.
In a letter by Ondonga Traditional Authority secretary Frans Enkali to Nghidiwakusha’s legal representatives, Slogan Matheus & Associates, dated May this year, Enkali said there are no records at the traditional authority’s office that Nghidiwakusha has been removed from his position.
“After perusing the records and consultation with the senior headman of Onalusheshete traditional district, this office failed to obtain any information pertaining to the suspension or removal of your client from any position . . . as claimed,” he said.
Enkali said if there are misunderstandings between Nghidiwakusha and cluster headman Nghitutuka, the matter should be handled through “the right channel with the view to find an amicable solution”.
In July this year, Ondonga Traditional Authority lawyer Elize Angula wrote to Nghidiwakusha’s lawyer, saying the decision to remove him from his position and withdraw his date stamp was taken by the Ondonga Traditional Authority – not by Nghitutuka.
Angula said Nghitutuka acted on the instruction and directions of the traditional authority.
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