Chiefs want to oversee Jomic

The chiefs said Jomic would continue to face hitches in its quest to ensure peace ahead of fresh elections unless they were granted powers to oversee Jomic activities in their areas.
Jomic has sometimes failed to broker peace and solve disputes among supporters of different political parties in some parts of the country, leading to some labelling it a “toothless bulldog”.
Chiefs’ Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira yesterday said traditional leaders throughout the country wanted to play a more active role in Jomic operations.
He said by including chiefs in its structures, Jomic would make its work much easier as traditional leaders had judicial powers which they could employ to punish those breaching peace.
“As chiefs, there is general unanimity that we should also be part of the Jomic structures whenever the organ is conducting its work,” said Chief Charumbira.
“We have a feeling as traditional leaders that we should be given a role to oversee the operations of Jomic in our areas because we have the people on the ground and by giving us an oversight role on the operations of Jomic, the body will become more effective than it is,’’ he said.
Chief Charumbira said by including chiefs in Jomic structures, the inclusive Government would have made the organ more effective.
He said chiefs had judicial powers to punish offenders.
“Jomic has no judicial powers which it can use in the course of executing its mandate to promote peace and solve disputes among people from different political persuasions,” said Chief Charumbira.
“We feel that if chiefs are incorporated into its structures, we can use our courts and judicial powers to punish unrepentant offenders and once there is deterrence it means cases of violence will be reduced.”
Chief Charumbira said chiefs were not happy to be excluded from Jomic structures though most of the organ’s activities were conducted in their areas of jurisdiction.
He decried tendencies by some Jomic officials whom he said never bothered to formally inform chiefs about activities they conduct in the areas.
Chief Charumbira said by roping in chiefs, Jomic would avoid situations where some of the organ’s meetings flopped because of poor attendance. Some Jomic meetings in parts of Masvingo such as Bikita reportedly flopped after villagers failed to turn up.