By Blessings Mashaya
Government is contemplating installing chiefs in resettlement areas thereby increasing the number of traditional leaders, Local Government minister July Moyo has revealed.
Moyo told Senators on Thursday that the people living in resettlement areas should now be under a chief or traditional leader.
“We have realised that to those chieftainships who have been in place for quite some time, they are aware of their boundaries and demarcations but we have noticed that in these new resettlement areas, especially in farming areas where people have been resettled, in the past they did not have any chiefs or traditional leaders, but . . . those people who are now living in these resettlement areas should now be under chiefs or traditional leaders.
“In this vein, we are now working at the modalities of making these demarcations so that we can be firm and also put the boundaries of these areas because we know that the chiefs are the custodians of our culture.
“In some instances, some chieftainships were destroyed because of the colonial past. Now we are working towards solving that problem and as a result, we need to have areas where these boundaries can be demarcated.
“We are saying this task should be taken into account by the Council of Chiefs and other local authorities because they are the custodians of these issues.”
Moyo’s announcement came as the country is witnessing a number of chieftainship wrangles which have been brought to the courts.
Several chiefs including the President of the National Council of Zimbabwe Chiefs, Fortune Charumbira have been dragged to court with people challenging their chieftainship.
While Charumbira won his case at the High Court, he is not the only one who has been brought before the court under similar circumstances.
Recently, dethroned Zhombe chief David Samambwa dragged President Emmerson Mnangagwa to the High Court seeking to nullify his decision to install his younger brother Samuel as the substantive chief.
Mnangagwa waded into the Samambwa chieftainship wrangle after he dethroned David, who was installed by his predecessor — Robert Mugabe — over a year ago. DailyNews
