By Frederick Philander HOACHANAS The long drawn-out church split and feuding between two camps among the Nama community at the Hoachanas village seems to be back to square one. The feud ended inconclusively, despite a pragmatic government intervention to try to resolve the issue. A week ago, the Minister of Regional, Local Government and Housing and Rural Development, John Pandeni, held a marathon closed-door meeting with leaders of the two opposing factions, but with seeming little success. The main protagonist, Chief Simon Kooper, who stands accused of not living up to the clan’s political expectations, after the meeting declared his willingness to work collectively with his main antagonist, David Topnaar, to narrow the division. “We demand an independent commission of investigation into the whole situation in the village,” said David Topnaar, who leads the open revolt against the traditional chief of the Namas at the village, despite the fact that he openly welcomed government’s intervention. “In my opinion, the meeting with the minister went well. I salute him for all his consistent efforts to help resolve the issue that has unnecessarily plagued our community for a long time. The minister suggested and recommended appropriately that the two sides move closer together in a peaceful manner,” said Chief Kooper when contacted for comment on the outcome of the meeting. Lasting over ten hours, the meeting chaired by Pandeni was inconclusive. “My clan sees the minister’s intervention as part of an ongoing consultative series of meetings in the process of resolving the many problems our community is facing. In my view, the minister spoke too much and listened too little abouot our problems. Furthermore, the main bone of contention against the present chief is that he acts without any traditional lawful guidance,” said David Topnaar, a principal at a Kalkrand primary school. According to Kooper, the minister did everything in his power to help reconcile the two groups that have been at loggerheads for more than two years now. “I think the meeting was successful in the sense that, for the first time, the two groups sat together at the same meeting to listen to each others’ viewpoints – in itself a great achievement. A good spirit reigned during the meeting. I think that community relations will henceforth improve,” said the chief, who has been in power for more than seventeen years.. Prior to Pandeni’s arrival at the village, the Topnaar clan issued a strongly- worded petition demanding the head of Chief Kooper. “Appropriate strategies need to be found to collectively remedy the deplorable situation in Hoachanas. We reject the current chief because his deceased father, the Reverend Markus Kooper, upon the latter’s untimely return from the United States of America, manipulated his election. The elections were done according to Western norms, and thus the royal bloodline of the Kai//Khau people was completely disregarded,” the petition stated. At the time of the elections, the chief of the Topnaars did not want to raise objections because they wouldn’t have wanted the clan to be divided on this score. “Our objection to the present chief is that our clan is not aware of and/or is ill-informed about the Customary Law, according to which Chief Kooper has been gazetted. Where is that Law? And how can someone be elected/appointed chief on the basis of a Law of which the clan has no common understanding?” the statement lamented on this issue. It also accused the chief of a lack of transparency with regard to overseas donations received on behalf of the community. “Our community has been kept in the dark about all these donations and the only proof of these donations left visible today are the remnants and remains of the mansion he tried to erect in Hoachanas. We have some evidence we can provide in camera, or in public, about how donations were not accounted for and that, to this date, many international donors are skeptical about being involved again with the Hoachanas community and clan.” “For all the years he has been leading us, the resources of the community and clan were used as personal possessions of the Kooper Dynasty, and their children lived lavish lifestyles until the international donor community closed the taps. This is a serious cause for concern, and only the concerted efforts of the Commercial Division of the Namibian Police and the Anti-Corruption Commission can throw any meaningful light on the financial and material affairs of our clan,” says the document signed by David Topnaar. Chief Kooper has lost the common touch with the people he leads, and he does not feel answerable to the people he is supposed to lead. “We want his traditional authority dissolved, and call for new and fresh elections along with our traditional customs because the present chief has failed us in many ways. With the present type of leadership, our Government’s Vision 2030 is doomed to failure in our part of the country. Our presently gazetted traditional leaders are a group who are directly responsible for the divisions in our community, and only their removal from traditional positions will bring peace, reconciliation and unity of purpose in our community and clan,” the petition to the Head of State charged.