John Muyamba
Mukwe-A meeting on Saturday at Mukwe to brief the community about the state of affairs in the Hambukushu Traditional Authority – following the withdrawal of the alleged dismissal of its head, Fumu Erwin Munika Mbambo – ended in chaos.
The meeting was also intended for the now dissolved committee, chaired by former Swapo MP Elifas Dingara, to publicly apologise to Fumu Mbambo but chaos soon erupted after members of the royal family from different factions started verbally attacking each other.
Some members accused Mbambo of a series of alleged transgressions, including lack of consultation on important tribal matters; and were not happy with the committee’s withdrawal.
“On 17 January the committee of members of the Hambukushu tribe established to dethrone Hambukushu Chief Erwin Mbambo for an avalanche of alleged transgressions, has withdrawn from its mission to oust the chief,” said the Hambukushu senior headman and Mbambo’s right-hand man Erwin Disho at the community meeting.
“They said that the committee has been disbanded and the Fumu should forgive them for everything. That is why we are here so that we can hear publicly, verbally on how they’re going to apologise and ask for forgiveness from our royal highness.”
But after Dingara and other members of the disbanded committee were called to the podium to formally apologise and announce the disbandment of their committee, they were repeatedly interrupted.
Some attendees asked the committee members if they were being forced to apologise, to which Dingara and his fellow members replied that they regretted their actions and no longer wished to continue with attempts to oust the chief.
The meeting was forced to end as it started raining heavily.
Dingara later told New Era that he did not see the need for the meeting as the committee had already publicly apologised through a letter to Chief Mbambo, which was widely reported by the media.
“I was asked to apologise verbally; they don’t believe in writing so I wanted to do it but the masses seem not to want. I’m not a chairperson anymore, but it looks like the people are still angry that the committee withdrew its pursuance of the matter [to have the chief removed].”
“We came here out of respect. This meeting was called by the traditional authority, that all Hambukushu must be present but many are now opposed to us apologising. The apology is in writing, so we can’t withdraw it anymore,” the former unionist told New Era on the
sidelines.
Caption: (Committee)
Mixed feelings… Elifas Dingara, on the far right. Behind him are some members of his disbanded committee, John Munyoka, Joseph Dinyando, Anton Mberema, Kassius Mukena, Moses Maketo and John Thimbunga.