Charumbira's chieftainship under probe

GOVERNMENT has reportedly opened up fresh investigations into Chief's Council leader Fortune Charumbira's contested chieftaiship amid allegations that he was an illegitimate traditional leader.

Charumbira yesterday declined to comment over the matter, referring all questions to officials at the Ministry of Rural Development, Promotion and Preservation of Culture and Heritage.

"Ask the people at the ministry, they will give you more information on that. I am in a meeting at the moment at Parliament," he said.

Sources close to the matter said President Robert Mugabe personally approved the investigations after Fainos Mihwa, one of the members of a family that lay claim to the chieftainship petitioned the Head of State in November 2016, seeking a review of the matter.

Mihwa, who belongs to the Mapingure house stated in the letter that three people in Fortune's family; Fortune's grandfather Mhazha, his father Zephania and Fortune have passed the chieftainship from one to the other without respecting the Shona custom where chieftainship moves from one house to another.

Chief Charumbira has been a towering figure in the traditional leadership circles for many years and is the president of the Chiefs' Council and Senator.

Government despatched a high-powered delegation to Charumbira Business Centre led by Fanuel Mkwaira, where it gathered evidence on the claims being made by the Mapingure family.

Sources said that the threat to Fortune's chieftainship is so dire that he also went to State House and appealed to First Lady Grace Mugabe for her intervention in the matter. The sources said Grace dismissed him and said the matter was already being dealt with by the responsible ministry.

Grace is also said to have told Charumbira that the matter had nothing to do with women and she, therefore, could not help.

Charumbira, who is widely believed to be a member of Lacoste, a faction in the ruling party supporting Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the Zanu-PF succession politics has also since taken the matter to court seeking an interdict to stop the investigations.

Eight houses that lay claim to the Charumbira chieftainship; the Mututuvari, Mapingure, Mutanha, Mataruse, Mudzimbasekwa, Magura, Muvoni and Madyira attended the meeting.

The Mapingure house seemed to have stood alone during the meeting as the majority of headmen appeared to identify with Charumbira. One of Charumbira's supporters initially rejected the hearing process, claiming that the head of the government delegation, Mkwaira, was an interested party as he once clashed with Charumbira when both of them were still working together at the ministry.

Mkwaira however, stood his ground and said that he had been tasked by the permanent secretary to carry out the investigations and he was not going to be stopped by the Charumbira families.

During the meeting there was a fierce clash with Charumbira's backers accusing the Mapingure family of being MDC-T supporters. The Mapingure family however, hit back and said that the matter was not a political one and labelling one house Zanu-PF or MDC-T was neither here nor there.

The Mapingire family said it was supposed to have landed the chieftainship during the time of the liberation struggle, but had failed because the colonial government accused it of supporting Zanla forces and feeding "terrorists". The House also claimed that Fortune's father, Zephania was actually protected and looked after by the Rhodesian forces.

They further argued that Shona custom was different from Ndebele custom where chieftainship is passed from father to son.

"When Zephania died, Fortune his son was asked to act on behalf of his father for six months. After six months the DA (district administrator) who was there, Gwafa asked that we give him someone and we gave him Dick to be installed as the chief and his fingerprints were taken by the Police for him to be given the Chieftainship, but nothing was done," said a letter signed by members of the family.