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A majority of the chiefs then stood up.
“The governors and provincial administrators who are here should convene a crisis meeting because this is a big issue. We need to set the record straight.”
Chief Charumbira also expressed concern that those who have benefited from the land redistribution exercise had not received offer letters.
“We need to tell each other the truth because for the last six years this has been an issue in our meetings. The other problem is that in our resettlements all over the country there are no boundaries and this needs to be ironed out,” he said.
The Government embarked on the historic land reform programme in 2000 in a bid to empower thousands of Zimbabweans who were displaced by the colonial settler regime.
This was after the British Government under the leadership of Mr Tony Blair refused to honour the Lancaster House Agreement to compensate the white commercial farmers who occupied large tracts of prime land.
To date more than 300 000 families have benefited from the land formerly held by some 4 000 white commercial farmers.
President Mugabe yesterday also underscored the need for resettled farmers to utilise the land allocated to them productively.
On the indigenisation programme, Chief Charumbira said chiefs should be given a share in the empowerment programmes such as mining.
He commended the Community Share Ownership Scheme/Trust (CSOS/T) as a milestone towards enhancing community development.
Chief Charumbira castigated some journalists who downplay the capability of traditional leaders in participating in the national economy, describing it as mediocre reporting.
He bemoaned the delays in the payment of chiefs’ allowances and said that was unfair.
Chief Charumbira said the chiefs would continue to support President Mugabe because he was a visionary leader whose ideology was in sync with the values that traditional leaders seek to preserve and promote.
“As chiefs we do not support President Mugabe for the sake of politics but the issue is the convergence of purpose. Where he is going is where we are also going,” he said.
At that moment the chiefs stood up in unison and celebrated President Mugabe’s 88th birthday belatedly amid whistling and applause from the huge gathering in the hall.
Chief Charumbira paid tribute to President Mugabe for providing farmers and chiefs with inputs in this year’s farming season.
He called for transparency in the administration of social support facilities and condemned corrupt tendencies in the distribution of the inputs in the districts and the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
A total of 257 chiefs and their spouses are attending the conference.
Online Reporter