adminNyore Madzianike Manicaland Bureau
Traditional chiefs in Manicaland will gather at Ngundu Primary School today to witness the installation ceremony of Chief Makumbe.
Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Cde July Moyo is expected to officiate at the event.
The ceremony will see Chief Makumbe being officially handed his regalia.
Mutare District Administrator Mr Wilson Boore confirmed the event.
“It is an installation ceremony where the chief will be handed his regalia and insignia,” he said. “There was an acting chief who was there for two years. His time has lapsed and according to the laws, the substantive chief must be installed.”
Mr Boore said Mr Stewart Makumbe had been acting as chief for the past two years.
“Tomorrow, Shepherd Chengeta is going to be installed,” he said. “He was appointed and introduced to the President, but he was yet to be given his regalia.
“It is this handing over of the regalia that will allow him to participate in Government activities as chief. Without the regalia he could not do that.”
Buhera Rural District administrator Mr Freeman Mavhiza said the ceremony was expected to start at around 9am.
The secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association, Cde Victor Matemadanda, recently indicated that chiefs should not be installed by district administrators.
“It is not proper that a chief is installed by a DA,” he said. “It is a system that was inherited, that reduces a chief to a mere person when in actual fact the chief is supposed to superintend over the DA.
“It was only done by the colonialists to appoint a person who would monitor things on behalf of her majesty, the Queen of England.”
Cde Matemadanda was speaking during an indaba held in Mutare with war veterans from Manicaland province recently.
Online Reporter