The Tjikuirire Stephanus Royal House on Saturday coronated Aaron Stephanus as the new Chief of the Orlam Vaalgras Traditional Authority (OVTA). Stephanus becomes the fifth successor following the death of Chief Joel Stephanus who died in 2021 due to COVID-19 complications and served as chief of the OVTA for 46 years. In his acceptance speech, Stephanus called for unity among the Vaalgras community, saying the community has enjoyed peace, unity and tranquillity for the past 115 years and the community should build on that. ‘One of my and my council’s objectives is to unite the divided traditional community and lead them into the unity of prosperity and success. I pledge to work together with everybody in the jurisdiction of the Vaalgras traditional authority and I thus call on everybody to work together with the authority entrusted with this noble responsibility,’ he said. The traditional authority, he said is open for developmental opportunities with all government ministries, agencies and offices to benefit the rural impoverished neglected communities as his noble responsibility is set to specific targets, aims and objectives within specific timeframes. ‘This will revitalise the traditional community from the situation in which we find ourselves in terms of socio-economic development and the government projects and programmes. We must always strive to share the little that we have to distribute the wealth equally and equity to bring everybody economically on par,’ he said. Stephanus added that the Orlams clan were described as a very progressive and prosperous clan which compels the OVTA to reclaim and restore human dignity and respect among all the other traditional communities. Ovaherero Paramount Chief, Hoze Riruako on the sideline of the event, also joined the new chief in calling for unity among the community of Vaalgras for them to find a common purpose that is beneficial to the whole community. ‘You have seen that all almost every ethnic group in Namibia there is disunity. Now coming to the people I was appointed to lead, I want to reduce the level of hostility, anger and threats among these groups because people are misrepresenting one another and my idea is to try to work with every group for them to look for the common purpose that is beneficial to all,’ he said. He added that disunity among communities can be retained through the youth citing that if one cultivates the idea of unity in them through the changing of their mindset that will help in breaching the disunity. A delegation from the Ovaherero traditional authority as well as health deputy minister and National Unity Democratic Organisation president, Utjiua Muinjangue witnessed the coronation that that took place at farm Willemsput.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency