I read with utter dismay and shock a so-called statement issued in condemnation of a certain Henny Seibeb,  during the land conference protest of the landless Namibians, by Chief Immanuel /Gaseb of the !Oe-#gan Traditional Authority. 
Chief /Gaseb seems not to understand how African culture, or !Oe-#gan people’s culture, operates by issuing a statement publicly without calling one of his so-called subjects to a traditional meeting of the elders to address the issue. 

Chief /Gaseb was ordered by his community to vacate his seat as he has [allegedly] transgressed and misused community trust funds, resettlement farms, and for his repressive and alien tendencies of handling the affairs of the traditional council. 
More so, his continued undermining and insults, and the division of the Damaran nation in his lobbying of the central government not to recognise popular Damaran people’s choice, King Justus //Garoeb, has further accelerated calls for his resignation. This was also captured in newspapers as the headline ‘Chief told to step down’’ in New Era, 19 December 2013 depicts.

Clearly, Chief /Gaseb is not fit to talk about morality as his own daughter, Inez /Gases, was fined N$60,000 or three years in prison, together with Paulus Kapia and Ralph Blaauw in the N$30 million Avid/Social Security Commission saga.
Should Namibians conclude that he groomed his daughter to defraud state institutions in future? For him to have based his argument on morality is hypocritical to say the least. Also, current Vice-President, Nangolo Mbumba, a year ago told off one of the well-known journalists, Elvis Muraraganda, ‘‘voetsek, voetsek, don’t call me on Sunday’’. Why didn’t the Chief see it fit to condemn Mbumba then? 

Therefore, Chief /Gaseb’s arguments about Seibeb are disingenuous, spurious and fundamentally flawed, laboured and meritless, bad in law, astonishing, palpably untrue, untenable and not sustained by objective evidence, uncreditworthy and nonsensical. 

These days, to be a traditional leader has become more like a business for some. To be a chief is the vehicle to economic power, and community resources tend to be reduced to economic ones. Under such circumstances traditional authority power is not sought for its own sake but for the material advantage it promises. 
Thus the sorts of Chief /Gaseb are trying hard to fit in the patrimonial networks of President Hage Geingob.

Bianca Amadamas /Naris
Omaruru