Old Ongandjera queen removed from the palace

The queen, Herta Munkundi, on Friday had her belongings removed from the palace (ombala) of Ongandjera at Uukwandongo in the Omusati Region that has been her home for 41 years next to the late king.

The move comes just days after the Ongandjera Traditional Authority and the royal family endorsed the nomination of 51-year-old Johannes Mupongolitha Tweuthigilwa yaJafet Mupiya as the new king of the Ongandjera tribe.

Mupiya, an employee of the South African High Commission in Windhoek, was nominated by the late King Munkundi to be the 25th king of the Onganjera and endorsed by the Ongandjera royal family undisputed.

His wife, 45-year-old Adelheid, who currently works as a Parliamentary Clerk at the National Council in Windhoek, will be expected to make the royal palace her home once Mupiya is officially installed as the new king.

Although it is customary for a queen and her children to vacate the palace of the royal family once her husband is dead, observers who witnessed Herta’s belongings being transported to a plot near the palace questioned if it’s not too early to move her.

Munkundi died in the Windhoek Central Hospital at the age of 83 on July 26 this year.

“We can debate whether or not we think the customs of the royal family are right, but we cannot dispute that it is too early to move the queen out of the ombala,” said an observer.

Herta moved into the palace of the royal family in 1971 after Munkundi succeeded King Uushona Shiimi and was crowned as the 24th king of the Ongandjera tribe.

Shiimi died in a car accident the same year near Ogongo in Omusati and his widow at the time suffered a similar fate by moving out of the palace of the royal family to make way for Herta.