Traditional leadership of Namibia

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Traditional leadership of Namibia is a governing structure in Namibia based on the ethnicity of the indigenous people of the territory. Acceptance of a traditional authority is vested in the Government of Namibia, executed by the minister of Urban and Rural Development. There are 51 recognised traditional authorities and a further 40 pending applications.^[1]

Traditional authorities cover the entire Namibian territory. For a traditional authority to be recognised by government it must have a sole area of jurisdiction; although virtually all places in Namibia are inhabited by members of different clans and tribes, the area of the settlements are deemed to belong to only one traditional authority. For a traditional leader to be accepted by government, they must be appointed according to the customary law of their clan, without major disputes about their current reign.^[2]

Leaders and their administrative staff are not paid by the state. Instead the traditional group's members are expected to sustain their leadership. Government did, however, give one car each to the recognised authorities, and awards allowances for fuel and administrative work. The parallel existence of traditional authorities and the Namibian government in Namibia is controversial.^[1] The traditional rulers and leaders are represented through the Council of Traditional Leaders, established by Act 13 of 1997 (GG 1706) and amended by Act 31 of 2000 (GG 2462).^[3]

Traditional leaders are entrusted with the allocation of communal land and the formulation of the traditional group's customary laws.^[1]

They also take over judicial work through traditional courts, offering a way to access compensation through civil law that does not require fees or lawyers. Crime in Namibia is treated by the classical courts solely as a criminal procedure, and ends in punishment of the offender; To seek material compensation a civil case has to be opened after the criminal verdict. Traditional fines are thus, in the words of justice minister Yvonne Dausab, meant "to wipe off tears", and not to replace criminal proceedings.^[4]

Typical punishments are in money or in livestock. For instance, the traditional courts of the Ovambo people in Namibia's north fine ten cows or 15,000N$ for murder, two cows or 3,000N$ for impregnating a child, and up to six cows for theft, depending on severity. The traditional court of the Oorlam people at Vaalgras in Namibia's south, where there are few communal cattle farmers, fines three goats for theft.^[4]

In the traditional Lozi system, the king and judges appointed by him heard cases of murder. A person found guilty of killing another without just cause was sentenced to death by the king and subsequently executed. However, if the convict sought refuge in the house of Katamoyo (Mother of Life), a challenging feat, the sentence was not carried out.^[5]

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