Paulina Ndalikokule
GAVA – Nearly 500 votes were almost lost at Gava village of the Mpungu constituency in Kavango West when residents decided to boycott voting yesterday.
The villagers sat at shebeens just across the mobile polling station which had come to the Gava Primary School, and was set to close at 11h00.
This comes after 14 community members were arrested and detained at the Nkurenkuru police station earlier this month for allegedly putting down a fence in the village, which they claim was erected illegally.
However, the locals made a sharp U-turn after a heated meeting with Kavango East governor Sirrka Ausiku, who was the chief mediator in the situation, late yesterday afternoon.
The community agreed to vote, and gave Ausiku until Friday to heed their demands.
She promised to consult the traditional authority and those accused of illegally fencing off communal land to resolve the impasse.
“We don’t have power over land; I could have instructed the chairperson to resolve it already. Give me until Friday, and I will come back with the right people, including the traditional authority and the person who fenced off the land, and we will resolve this together. Please, for now, let’s go and vote,” Ausiku promised.
The man at the centre of the storm, Jackson Kapule, stood his ground, reiterating that everything was beyond reproach as he went through the right procedures to get the land.
“The traditional authority rules are in line with government Acts and policies. We are in a democratic country, where we can buy land everywhere. We did not take it by force,” he stated.
Kapule, however, agreed to put the fencing work on hold until Friday, as requested by the governor.
On the day, the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s presiding officer at the station said no voter had turned up to cast their ballot the whole morning.
Meanwhile, village headman Eino Hamunime said the fence was supposed to have been removed on Monday.
This was after a meeting with Ausiku and officials from the regional council last Friday.
“We will do whatever it takes to make sure they vote, should the fence be removed,” Hamunime said.
Paulina Ndalikokule is an information officer at MICT Kavango.