The Herero people of Namibia are ruled by traditional leaders, the highest office is that of the Paramount Chief. During part of the South African apartheid administration in South West Africa, when Hereroland was a bantustan (designated area for Herero settlement), they additionally had a political representative to the South African Administration, which was decoupled from chieftaincy in 1980. Fast forward a few years after Independence in 1990, there are many traditional authorities in terms of Traditional Authorities Act, 1995 (Act No. 25 of 2000 as amended). Since the implementation of the Traditional Authorities Act in 1995, the independent government of the Republic of Namibia sought to recognize individual royal houses within the Ovaherero communities as stand-alone traditional authorities and denied recognition the overarching Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) that has been in existence since 1863. Paramount Chief Riruako fought for recognition and the Authority was then recognized in 2008 and himself gazetted as head of the traditional community at the beginning of 2009. He and others instituted a legal claim against three German companies. When Riruako passed on June 2nd, 2014, many groups saw the opportunity to seize the opportunity to control the heart and soul of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority. The Chiefs Council appointed Tumbee Tjombe as Acting Paramount Chief and when he died a month later, a senior councilor Vipuira Kapuuo and Chairperson was appointed as Acting Paramount Chief as per customary law. Adv Vekuii Rukoro was then elected as the new paramount chief on 22nd September 2014, with a clear mission to fight for the reparation of Ovaherero and Nama peoples whose ancestors were exterminated by the Imperial German government during the period of 1904 to 1908. Adv Rukoro with his Nama counterpart, Gaob David Frederick and later on Gaob Johannes Isaak, demanded direct participations in the negotiations for reparation with the German Government, but the Namibian and German governments denied them of their rights to self-representation. In 2017 the Ovaherero and Nama leaders filed a class action lawsuit in the Southern Court of New York, a case which ended up in the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Adv Rukoro passed on, on 18th June 2021, due to Covid-19 complications, and subsequently the one faction of the Ovaherero Chiefs Council under Chief Tjiundje unanimously appointed Professor Dr Mutjinde Katjiua as his successor. Prof Katjiua had served as Rukoro's right hand in his capacity of