THE Chirumanzu chieftainship wrangle has taken a new turn after the Midlands provincial chiefs council last week appointed Nyamande Muzondo of Mutizirapi house as substantive traditional leader.
Muzondo was appointed ahead of Julius Chimbi Chigegwe of the Nherera.
Chigegwe has over the years been fighting for the chieftainship with acting Chief Chirumanzu Fidelis Mudzengi.
The Nherera house elders have since written a petition to Local Government and Public Works minister Daniel Garwe registering their disgruntlement with the selection process concluded last Thursday.
“We are aggrieved by the process followed by the Midlands provincial chiefs council representatives, who visited Chirumanzu clan on June 6 to select the candidate for substantive Chief Chirumanzu,” the elders wrote.
“We are requesting the honourable minister to help with correcting the unjust and unfair process used in the proceedings, which resulted in a biased and seemingly predetermined outcome by the provincial chiefs’ council.
“There are two houses eligible for chieftainship selection, Nherera house and Mutizirapi house. The provincial chiefs council refused to hear the full context of the Chirumanzu chieftainship to address the historical imbalance favouring only one side of the two houses.”
The Nherera house elders said they felt the Simba sub-house was over-represented by “unvetted members” and that this “skewed” the outcome of the proceedings.
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The elders further argued that the Mutizirapi house was given an unfair advantage as it “ruled two times more than the Nherera house”, making the rotation system biased in their favour.
Efforts to get a comment from Chief Mataruse, who led the provincial chiefs council, were in vain.
However, a member of the council, who requested anonymity, said the council had used a rotation system to select the candidate for substantive chief.
However, the elders want Garwe to intervene and correct the injustice and restore order to the Chirumanzu chieftainship.
A social and cultural commentator, who is also a member of the Chirumanzu clan, Joseph Toendepi, said there was need to restore customs and traditions that upheld traditional leadership systems to avoid disunity and chaos.
“Once we have such malpractices, we risk changing the cultural norms meant to preserve the Zimbabwe identity in our traditional systems of leadership,” he said.
The battle for the Chirumanzu chieftainship started following the death of Chief Jerald Mudzengi in February 2019. Before last week’s appointment of Muzondo, Jerald’s son, Fidelis, has been acting chief, but Chigegwe maintained that he is the next chief.
