Online Reporter
Online Reporter
Controversy seems to be a part of Chief Murinye’s DNA.
In 2012 Chief Murinye, who at the weekend tried to block the opening of the new Riverton Academy Murinye in Masvingo, teamed up with Chief Mugabe and demanded 2000 white cattle from mobile phone operator Econet Wireless for desecrating their ancestral shrine while putting up a base station on Sviba Hills near Great Zimbabwe.
Chief Murinye and Chief Mugabe accused the mobile phone operator of defiling a traditional shrine by exhuming human remains and destroying relics from the shrine.
The two chiefs made an urgent High Court chamber application in October 2012 seeking to stop the project.
In the application, the chiefs said Sviba Hills was a burial site and place of worship for the Duma people.
They argued that the traditional customary rites preserved at Sviba Hills had been exposed to desecration by the construction of the base station.
Justice Joseph Musakwa dismissed the urgent application by the two Masvingo chiefs.
Chiefs Murinye and Mugabe were also seeking an order compelling Econet to arrange and finance the reburial of some exposed human remains at the shrine.
Justice Musakwa ordered the chiefs to pay for the legal costs incurred by Econet in the failed application.
The Sviba Hills are near the Great Zimbabwe monuments and house sacred caves where successive Murinye and Mugabe chiefs were buried.
The Murinye and Mugabe of the Duma clan conduct appeasement and rain-making ceremonies there.
The chiefs said Econet Wireless should appear before a traditional court and pay compensation to appease the Murinye and Mugabe ancestors whose remains were excavated when the booster was being installed.
Chief Murinye (Ephias Munodawafa) and Mugabe (Matubede Mudavanhu) said Econet would appear before Chief Shumba of Masvingo Central.
Chief Shumba — Mr Mugaviri Chikava — was chosen by the two chiefs to preside over the case as a neutral arbiter.
“We have summoned Econet Wireless to appear before a traditional court on December 5 this year (2012) at Chamakondo Traditional Court in Masvingo Central.
“We are demanding that Econet compensate us for desecrating our sacred shrines in Sviba Hills.”
Said Chief Murinye: “We are demanding to be paid 2 000 head of cattle by Econet Wireless and all these cattle should be white in colour.
“Econet Wireless should also buy some special cloths, which we are going to use to appease our ancestors.”
Chief Mugabe said the Mugabe and Murinye people were bitter with Econet.
However, Econet Wireless had argued in the High Court case that the chiefs had known since July 2010 that the company had been granted permission to set up the base station by the Masvingo Rural District Council.
