Otjinene councillor punished for attending land conference

OTJINENE constituency cuncillor Erwin Katjizeu was excluded from the Ovaherero Traditional Authority’;s commemoration at Ozombuzovindimba last Saturday because he attended the recent second national land conference.

Katjizeu, the Otjinene regional councillor of the National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo), confirmed this to Nampa on Monday.

He said he was denied an opportunity to do the official welcoming remarks during the event that took place in his constituency.

“I received an invitation to the conference in my capacity as councillor of the Otjinene constituency, and I saw it fit to represent part of those members of the constituency under my leadership who lost land,” Katjizeu explained.

He said it was unfair for the genocide committee, which oversaw the planning of the commemoration, to have removed him from the programme for this reason as he went to the conference on a political ticket, and not as a member of the OTA, under which the commemoration was held.

OTA chief of staff Bob Kandetu on Tuesday confirmed to this agency that they could not allow Katjizeu to speak during an event of people who were not happy with the councillor attending the land conference, which the OTA had boycotted.

“We found it contradictory for the honourable Katjizeu to have spoken at a platform that is addressing the ills of the past, which ills led today to the quest for ancestral land,” said Kandetu, adding that the OTA found that excluding him from the programme was the right thing to do.

Approached for comment, Nudo secretary general Meundju Jahanika said the party cannot comment on this matter as it is the prerogative of the OTA to decide who they shall allow to speak at their events.

“It is the OTA’;s right to choose whoever to put on their programme, but Katjizeu’;s punishment for having attended the land conference should come from Nudo, and not the OTA,” Jahanika said.

Kandetu said similar action was executed against the chairperson of the Otjinene Village Council, Landine Kauta, who also attended the land conference.

Kauta, according to Kandetu, was scheduled to deliver the closing remarks at the commemoration, but was denied that chance for the same reason as Katjizeu.

Ozombuzovindimba is situated about 20 kilometres north-east of Otjinene, and it is where German general Lothar von Trotha issued the extermination order against the Ovaherero and Ovambanderu on 2 October 1904.

– Nampa