Chiefs must not marry wives who have children with subjects- sen Mlotshwa

MDC-T senator for Matabeleland South has said in true African tradition chiefs were not supposed to marry wives who had children with other men as the tradition does not allow a chief to share a wife with his subjects.

She said at the moment when calls for Chiefs to be accorded respect is topping the agenda in the senate it was sad that some chiefs married wives who have even five children with various men.

She said as the calls for the chiefs to be given respect she was worried who was supposed to give them that respect.

"I am trying to think who is supposed to give the chiefs that recognition. When I tried to look at the structure of the chiefs, I think we want to see a true replica of the original traditions because if we house our traditions in a certain institution, we want to feel that there is a true replica of the old traditions that we are proud of as a nation because we are diverse but we want to feel that the different chiefs represent us in that aspect. I should think if then that happens, the respect will just come on its own," Mlotshwa said.

"We want to see reality in the representation and we do not want to be forced to admit that there is. We want to feel it. If a respected person enters a room, you have to feel that somebody of high standard has entered the room. I think that is what is missing for everybody else to feel that the chiefs are there and they are representing our traditions, because we do not have any other way of showing traditions other than the representation that is done by the chiefs. In my case my mother is a direct descendant of Mzilikazi the king, so I am interested in these issues because of that."

She said in  tradition, a chief did not marry a wife that has children by some three or four men in the same community.

"It was like that and we want to see it like that because if you look at why it was not allowed to happen - it was because a chief was not to share a wife with his subject. But if a chief is now marrying a wife that has five children from different men then the respect is never there because those same men will say I have a child with the chief's wife," she said. "The respect of chiefs goes down because at times they do things that our original forefathers who were the repositories of knowledge were not doing. There cannot be respect in the community if a chief is sharing a wife with four other men. It was done like that because they wanted a chief to be respected that the wife of a chief is a wife of a chief. In that regard I think our chiefs are misrepresenting our traditions."

Mlotshwa said again if one look into the present Chiefs Council or the previous Chiefs Council after Independence, you will find that it is like the recognition and leadership of the Chiefs' Council only has to come from a certain region.

"The other regions do not have true chiefs that can lead the Chiefs Council. In that aspect when I look at it, I think we need to feel that all chiefs are the same. They represent those people of their areas. We do not want to see the other chiefs being belittled," she said.