Axed Ondonga leaders establish opposing office

OLUNO, 18 MAR – Hundreds of Ondonga residents on Saturday attended a mass community meeting convened by dismissed Ondonga Traditional Authority (OTA) senior councillors to discuss the ongoing leadership dispute within the traditional authority since last year.

Vilho Kamanya, one of the dismissed senior councillors, said the meeting informed the Ondonga community that a temporary traditional office where the subjects should go to pay their customary levies, has been established at the Punyu Hotel near Oniipa and will be open as from Monday.

The meeting heard that officials to man the envisaged office are already identified while a hall where the Ondonga community court will be conducted, is also to be established at the hotel.

Meeting organisers told Nampa on enquiry Saturday, this arrangement aims to prevent subjects from paying levies at the OTA office at Oluno, which is under the management of one of the newly-appointed senior councillors, Nepando Amupanda.
Amupanda, in turn, declared Saturday’s meeting illegal.

In an interview with Nampa the same day, Amupanda said it is false for Kamanya, Joseph Asino, Peter Kauluma and John Walenga to claim that they are still senior councillors while they have registered a case with the High Court at Oshakati against Ondonga King Immanuel Kauluma Elifas, reportedly to have their dismissals overturned.
They were fired on charges of misconduct.

Kamanya, Asino, Kauluma and Walenga were already replaced by new senior councillors: Amupanda, Rainhold Nepolo and Naeman Kambala, Paavo Amwele and Erastus Mvula. A fifth councillor was necessitated by the division of one of the Ondangwa district, which Walenga headed, into two.

Junior councillors – Kashona kaMalulu, Fillemon Nambili and Tonata Ngulu – who were dismissed alongside the four senior councillors, also attended Saturday’s meeting that was chaired by Walenga. – NAMPA