“On 28 October at the official opening of the 2017 National Conference of Chiefs in Bulawayo, Chief Fortune Charumbira, who is the President of the Chief’s Council, called upon chiefs to campaign for President Robert Mugabe in the 2018 national elections. Chief Charumbira also said that the chiefs must support President Mugabe as the ZANU PF 2018 presidential candidate because, so he claimed, he recognises and respects traditional leaders. He further indicated that Mugabe was the candidate for chiefs in 2014 as agreed during the congress at the time,” said a report in The Zimbabwean.
“Such statements by a public servant are not only reckless but dangerous but have far reaching implications. Chief Charumbira’s statements interfere with the basic freedom of all traditional leaders and community members to exercise their right to support candidates of their choice without fear of reprisals. The provisions of the Constitution on traditional leaders are very clear. They call on all traditional leaders, as provided in section 281(1)(a) of the Constitution to act in accordance with the Constitution and treat all persons in areas under their jurisdiction equally and fairly, see section 281(1)(c). It is goes without saying that once traditional leaders dabble in party politics and openly declare their support to one political party they will not be able to discharge their traditional roles and duties impartially.”
Other than the odd and notable exception such as the late Chief Rakayi Tangwana, the Chiefs and other traditional leaders have always been there to serve the government of the day in when doing so was not in the common interest of the ordinary people they are supposed to lead. The white colonialists found the Chiefs a very useful tool in helping them subdue the blacks.
Once the whites gave the local Chiefs the bell-shaped, “dengu” in Shona, explorer hard hat plus the half-moon plate with “CHIEF” inscription necklace, they had an ally to help them impose white colonial oppression and exploitation. It is little wonder many blacks referred to the Chiefs as “muDengu muneyi!” (Empty explore hard hat!)
President Mugabe is a control freak who loves to surround himself with simpletons, if they are corrupt too, the better! It is no surprise therefore that the tyrant was quick off the mark in courting Zimbabwe’s tradition leaders to switch their blind allegiance the white colonialists to him and his desire to create a de facto one-party, Zanu PF, dictatorship in Zimbabwe. President Mugabe has bribed the Chiefs and other traditional leaders; the twin-cab Isuzu truck is the latest bribe for each of the 226 Chiefs. In return the traditional leaders have cooperated fully with the regime’s vote rigging shenanigans even though these denied the people their freedoms and basic human rights and violated the country’s laws and constitution.
The real surprise here is that the corrupt and incompetent opposition much more organisation such as Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) should be complaining about “muDengu muneyi” Charumbira publicly calling on his fellow Chiefs to continue abusing their positions in forcing the people to vote for Zanu PF in next year’s elections. If ZLHR was serious about putting an end to this political culture of Zanu PF abusing Chiefs, Police, ZEC and all the other state institution to promote its selfish no-regime-change mantra; then they must join the few demanding the implementing of the democratic reforms BEFORE elections.
Until the meaningful reforms are implemented, these empty head Chiefs will continue to frogmarch povo to polling stations to vote for Zanu PF!
Ian Smith had Chiefs in his pockets and since 1980 they have been in Mugabe’s pockets. “MuDengu muneyi” Chirumbira and his fellow 226 Chiefs have all received their Isuzu trucks, their thirty pieces of silver, they will be frogmarching povo to vote for President Mugabe, period. Both the colonial regimes and the Zanu PF dictatorship have exploited the inherent autocratic tendencies in Zimbabwe’s traditional culture and corrupting the system beyond recognition. There is little value in reforming and depoliticising the village heads, chiefs, etc.; these unelected leaders have already proven that they are susceptible to corrupting influences and dictatorial tendencies. We must scrap the whole system in favour of elected officials who are democratically accountable to the people!
2 comments:
The one common thread that unites Zimbabwe’s leaders; be they Zanu PF, MDC and other opposition politicians, traditional leaders like Chiefs, etc.; is they are corrupt and incompetent. They all prophesy to seek public office to end the injustice, corruption and oppression of the common man by those in power; but as soon as they get into power themselves they undergo a complete metamorphosis transformation turning them into the replica corrupt and oppressive tyrant they vowed to remove.
Mugabe did not have any problem getting his Zanu PF friends in the party to help him impose the de facto one-party cum one-man dictatorship; he only had to promise them a share of the absolute power and the spoils – some got their share of the power and spoils, at least for a while, others got nothing. After 37 years of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption the country’s once buoyant economy is in total ruins and poverty reign supreme; over 90% of the workforce are unemployed and 72.3% of the populous now live on US$1.00 or less a year. Zimbabweans are the poorest people in Africa. Needless to say many of Mugabe’s cronies, including the party’s grandees, died or are living in abject poverty.
The people of Zimbabwe risked life and limb to vote for Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends on the promise they will bring about the democratic changes designed to end the Zanu PF dictatorship. MDC leaders had the golden opportunities to implement the democratic reforms and dismantle the dictatorship during the GNU. Mugabe pampered Tsvangirai and company with the trappings of high office; ministerial limos, generous salaries and allowance, and former white-owned farm and a $4 million mansion for Welshman Ncube and Tsvangirai respectively, etc.; and MDC leaders kicked the reforms into the prickly pear thicket.
Mugabe had no problem bribing the corrupt and incompetent MDC leaders to forget the reforms. He bribed all the MDC leaders; not just one or two, all; and not just for a few months but for five years of the GNU.
Asking Tsvangirai to implement the reforms was like asking a cockroach to fetch milk; it loves milk so much it gorge itself and drown! “Kutuma bete kumukaka!” as one would say in Shona.
It is no surprise that Mugabe has had no problem bribing the country’s traditional leaders like “muDengu muneyi” Chief Fortune Charumbira. Even now with the nation in a real political and economic mess it is not surprising that an empty head like Charumbira still fails to see Mugabe for the incompetent, vote rigging, corrupt and murderous tyrant he is. The moron just a pick-truck and he is out frogmarching povo to vote for the tyrant. If this moron was elected by povo in a free, fair and credible election, he would not be doing this!
It is people like Charumbira who have underlined how corrupt and undemocratic our traditional cultural practices like chieftainship are. We want to move on with the time and have democratic power invested in the individual and not an unelected village head or chief just because that is what we have always had in the past.
I agree, we do not need village heads, Chiefs and all the other supernumerary, corrupt and incompetent busy bodies. We must just scrap these institutions and not even bother reform them!
@ Ndaba
Chiefs, village heads and the other traditional leaders are Zanu PF political commissars in all but name. They are the one who have at the forefront of the regime's harassment, beating and rape of povo in the rural areas and frogmarching them to attend Zanu PF rallies and then to vote for the party.
Zimbabwe is not doing well precisely because we have corrupt and incompetent traditional leaders who have become an extension of the dictatorship. We will be better off scrapping these empty heads and have elected and accountable leaders!
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