Pouring oil on the Vaalgras revolt

DISGRUNTLED NATIVE WATCHDOG WRITES:If one has to juxtapose the current political state of affairs, nothing is going right in this beloved country of us in terms of institutional corruption, cantankerous political allegiance and solidarity to protect comrades through political deception.What is happening is very worrisome. We are allowing litany of hegemonic autocrats to govern us. It's the election court challenge, the Fishrot scandal, the chaos in Parliament, Covid-19, the national reconciliation talks and name-calling etc.Corruption is visible in all spheres of society and at all levels of Government, viz. national, regional, local authority and traditional authority levels. Everyone entrusted with a little responsibility and/or appointed into a position of power proves himself or herself to be corrupt. Now, the question begs, are we really serious and how do we want to govern this country?During the budget motivation of the 2020/2021 fiscal year for the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, the opposition parties rightly said that the Government shouldn't interfere if a given traditional Chief and/or Headman has been removed from office by his own community, as provided for in Section 8 subsection (1) of the Traditional Authorities Act No. 25 of 2000.Hon. Erastus Utoni was quick to reply that investigations must be lodged first.In the case of Vaalgras all the legal procedures, systems and investigations have been carried out. The documentation have been approved and signed by former //Kharas Regional Governor, Hon. Bernadus Swartbooi, on the 23rd of April 2013 and forwarded to Hon. Minister Charles Namoloh, but to no avail.Since then, these documents are just collecting dust in the offices of the then Ministry of Local Government and Housing, although the revolt started at the time of Hon. Jerry Ekandjo till the incumbent Hon. Minister Utoni. These documents got lost about thrice and we had to resubmit them to restart this lengthy exercise. Hon. Peya Mushelenga took more than a year to take an informed decision regarding the matter, until he was eventually reshuffled during this year.We have approached the Office of the Presidency about twice and they are well aware of what is going on at Vaalgras.The broad community of Vaalgras have removed the leadership of Chief Joël Stephanus through a popular democratic vote on the 4th of June 2011. A Tjireje Fact-finding Commission was there on the 27th of November 2013, where after the outcome of the report is now a top secret of the Ministry and we are still fighting for this as well.In this whole saga the more time they (deposed leaders) are being given by their comrades through political camaraderie the more harm they are doing to the impoverished, neglected and underdeveloped rural community. So, Hon. Utoni has nothing to investigate, except to sign and forward the documents to the Presidency as provided by the law.Of late, I’m reliably informed that the deposed Vaalgras leadership have reportedly appointed a new additional traditional councillor, a retired teacher, on the 8th of July2020 at Vredefontein, whilst we are waiting for them to be removed. They cannot convene any community meetings, as they don't lead the community anymore and I'm just wondering why they should think they need more people. To do what?Enough is enough, it’s high time for the Government to take radical stringent remedial corrective measures to resolve this delicate issue amicably once and forever. This leadership has fallen short of ethical, good corporate governance and the community is suffering due to cultural disarray, social decay and poverty.

Pouring oil on the Vaalgras revolt

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Republikein 2026-05-05

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Pouring oil on the Vaalgras revolt

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Republikein 2026-05-05

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