Mbumba postpones Hosea Kutako shrine unveiling to attend Boko inauguration

President Nangolo Mbumba has postponed the unveiling ceremony of chief Hosea Kutako’s shrine to attend the the inauguration ceremony of Botswana’s new president.

President-elect Duma Boko will be inaugurated on Friday, the same day Kutako’s shrine unveiling was scheduled to take place.

President spokesperson Alfred Hengari says Mbumba has accepted an invitation to attend the inauguration ceremony of Boko.

“The presidency wishes to apologise for any inconvenience the change of dates for the inauguration of the Chief Hosea Kutako Memorial Museum and Shrine may have caused,” Hengari says.

Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) chief Mutjinde Katjiua commended Mbumba for taking the initiative to postpone the event and recommended proper planning by inviting the Batswana chiefs whose predecessor played an important role in Namibia’s independence.

Katjiua says proper planning of Kutako’s memorial museum should be recognised as a significant element in Namibia’s politics that earned him global recognition by the United Nations.

“We raised the following with the president that the hastily and poorly organised inauguration should be postponed to provide for sufficient consultation and planning by all stakeholders,” Katjiua said at a conference in Windhoek yesterday.

This comes after the Kutako family claimed they were excluded from the unveiling of the memorial shrine at Toasis in the Omaheke region.

Katjiua said the Omaheke governor, the National Heritage Council and the Presidency should plan the event better.

“No consultation or updates on project progress at all, following the groundbreaking ceremony in 2023 was sent to the OTA despite letters sent to Hage Geingob and the director of the National Heritage Council,” he said.

The event has been postponed to 10 December.