WINDHOEK – The Minister of Urban and Rural Development Dr Peya Mushelenga has urged chiefs to practise transparency and fairness when appointing the next members of the Council of Traditional Leaders.
Mushelenga made this plea during the closing ceremony of the 21st annual meeting of the Council of Traditional Leaders held in Windhoek last week.

The tenure of office for council members ends this year. Mushelenga said traditional leaders should appoint people who have the public’s interest at heart and not those that are after personal interest.

“Appoint people who understand the rule of law and not those who will circumvent statutory rules and procedures – and people who will advise you without fear, favour or prejudice,” he said.
Mushelenga also urged traditional leaders with disputes to work towards concluding the disputes and march forward to unity and progress.

“If you remain divided and prolong your differences, it has a long-term impact on the unity of your communities,” he said.
He said the ministry will continue to provide support to traditional authorities in fulfilling their customary obligations.
Mushelenga also expressed his sincere gratitude and appreciation to traditional leaders on the manner they conducted themselves during the meeting’s deliberations.

He said the meeting remains one of the platforms born from the Namibian Constitution to provide a fair chance to traditional leaders to extensively engage with the state and government to investigate societal issues and pass considerate recommendations to government without favour.

“This has been a remarkable session in the history of the Council of Traditional Leaders on which critical issues on the agenda such as cooperation between traditional authorities, regional council and local authorities were carefully discussed and considerate recommendations were made,” he said.

He said government is doing this in order to continue enhancing good governance in the country and to ensure that development programmes are not interrupted. 

“You also discussed a pertinent issue of succession of heads of traditional authorities that has over the past years divided our traditional communities,” he said, adding that he hopes and trusts that recommendations made on the matter will assist government to address issues of succession amicably.