RURAL Development, Promotion and Preservation of National Culture and Heritage minister Abednico Ncube has said no traditional chief is superior to the other and dismissed the notion that there are paramount leaders.
BY KENNETH NYANGANI
Addressing traditional leaders from various provinces in Mutare on Wednesday at a Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender workshop on the abolition of the death penalty, Ncube said he had been informed that some chiefs were claiming to be above others.
“Let me emphasise that we do not have paramount chiefs in independent Zimbabwe. It was a colonial practice which has no place in our society,’’ he said.
“Our supreme law does not provide for such a status as chiefs are equal and this should be solved.’’
Chiefs in Zanu PF strongholds were regarded as superior to those in opposition parties’ strongholds.
Ncube also apologised for the late disbursement of the chiefs’ allowances in November and December 2015 claiming this was caused by new “institutional configurations” following the creation of his ministry.
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The meeting was attended Chiefs’ Council president Fortune Charumbira, Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Mandi Chimene and provincial administrator Fungai Mbetsa, among other government officials.
Chimene warned the chiefs against disrespecting the law as they also risked being arrested.
