By Lylie Happiness
OSHAKATI, June 4 – Urban and rural development minister, Erastus Uutoni, has urged traditional authorities to safeguard cultural norms and values across the board as they are becoming extinct.
This was his message during a courtesy call to the Ongandjera palace at Uukwandongo village on Friday.
He reminded traditional authorities of their responsibility to safeguard their cultures, saying the unity of purpose is the only solution to preserving cultural norms and values. The minister said he was disheartened that most of the country’s traditional authorities were being used to advance personal agendas, rather than safeguarding culture which he said should be the core purpose of existence.
Representing the Ongandjera traditional authority, Johannes Kandombo, informed Minister Uutoni of the various problems they faced including community courts.
He explained that community courts face challenges because not all problems are solved and they take years and years to be submitted to the court.
Another challenge is animal theft which people face every day, while the land grabbing is also an issue.
The Ongandjera traditional authority has 12 councillors of whom only six receive salaries from the government. They also requested a proportional allocation of resources to ensure traditional authorities with more people received sustainable budgets to carry out their activities.
The minister promised to address some of these concerns. – Namibia Daily News
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