adminTemba Dube Senior Reporter
THE Bidi family of Kezi has resolved to boycott the installation the son of the last Chief Bidi, Mr Nqaba Ndiweni tomorrow. On Wednesday last week, the brothers of the late Chief Bidi filed an urgent High Court Chamber application to stop the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Dr Ignatius Chombo from installing Mr Nqaba Ndiweni as the new chief.
Mr Nqaba Ndiweni was named as the first respondent, President Mugabe as the second and Dr Chombo, the third.
The respondents were given 10 days to oppose the application, failure to which the court would sit and produce a judgement.
By yesterday, none of the respondents had filed opposing papers to the application.
On Tuesday, a man claiming to represent Mr Nqaba Ndiweni called Chronicle and said they were going ahead with the installation tomorrow, as they had already started brewing traditional beer for the occasion.
“The ceremony is just a formality to announce to everyone that Nqaba is chief. As it is, he already has a pay slip and is getting all the allowances that other chiefs are getting,” said the representative.
Yesterday, the eldest male member of the Ndiweni family, Mr Simon Bidi Ndiweni (72), said Mr Nqaba Ndiweni had somehow conspired with Government officials to get himself elevated to the chieftaincy.
He said according to the Nguni custom, he was supposed to be next in line for the Bidi chieftaincy.
“The installation is against our culture. It is the family, not Government officials who should choose the next chief. If they proceed with the ceremony, we will not recognise the new chief. We shall remove him and carry out a ceremony in line with our tradition to install the proper chief,” said Mr Simon Ndiweni, who was in the company of other family members.
He said the Nguni culture dictated that a new chief should be first presented to the ancestors and none of the elders would do that for Mr Nqaba Ndiweni.
“The Bidi chieftaincy staff is also in my possession. Without it, a chief would not be recognised. As a family, we will not give it up,” said Mr Simon Ndiweni.
He said the Bidi homestead where traditionally, the new chief is supposed to be installed would be deserted tomorrow and anyone who enters it to perform the ceremony would be trespassing.
“We have left the homestead. We hear the chief executive officer of Matobo Rural District Council, Mr Ernest Ndlovu is going around misinforming people, saying we gave permission for the ceremony to be held at the homestead. I would like to warn him that lying in the name of the royal family is an offense for which he can pay with a number of cattle,” said Mr Simon Ndiweni.
He said the family had a cemetery where the chiefs were buried and Mr Nqaba Ndiweni would not be buried there as he was not a proper chief.
The Bidi family is arguing that Mr Nqaba Ndiweni does not qualify for the chieftaincy, according to Nguni culture.
The family is saying he was not culturally eligible to become chief because his mother got married to the late Chief Bidi, but brought another child from another marriage.
They say a cleansing ceremony should have been held while the chief was still alive to make her son “acceptable.”
The Bidi chieftaincy’s area of jurisdiction is bounded by Shashane River in the east and Semukwe River in the West.
It stretches from Marinoha Hills in the in the north, where it shares a boundary with Chief Fuyana and ends in the south at Demarcation Line Road, where Chief Malaba’s area starts.
The chieftaincy started with Bidi Ndiweni in 1923 and his son Ntinima took over in 1929, followed by Ephraim Mthibe in 1982.
Mthibe’s second born son, Mr Joseph Smile became chief in 1990 after the first born, Felix died but left a daughter.
Joseph Smile died in May 2009 and the area has been without a chief since then.
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