News / National
Chiefs must take care of starving children
29 Feb 2016 at 06:19hrs |
589 Views
Senator Dorothy Tholakele Khumalo has challenged the Chiefs in the country to take care of starving children in their areas indicating that is one of their duties.
"The work that has been done by our chiefs is important. I liked it so much because when we were growing up way back, the chiefs would look at the people from their area and take note whether there is drought or not. If there is drought it was the responsibility of the chief to look, for example cows so that they will provide milk for the children. This is where the issue of having a specific place where the chiefs keep their food stocks comes in," she said.
"Today, we realise that there are children who are so slim because of drought, some have stunted growth. During our time, our chiefs used to work so much and we never had such cases. Those who used to experience such cases, they used to take them to other families who were known to be doing well and it was the responsibility again of the chiefs to keep checking whether that child is being taken care of properly or not."
She said if not, they would take the child back to their families.
"That is why I am saying I love our chiefs for they used to take care of all the children regardless of where they came from. I know that these days the chiefs are not been given an opportunity to allocate residential areas for people especially in their communities," she said.
"There are some people who come from other areas and I know most of them who are coming from different provinces do not listen to the chiefs. I therefore, support the speaker who said that everybody is supposed to be allocated land where they stay according to their culture."
She said as a result, it will be easy for the chiefs to allocate residential areas to the people in their community.
"I, therefore, ask the Government to empower the chiefs to instill the culture that they want in the people from their community. One speaker highlighted again on the issue of Chimoio, that they fought so much but we are realising that the people have forgotten about this. I urge all the chiefs from Matebeleland and Midlands that if they can look seriously on the issue of people who died during Gukurahundi. I am urging all the chiefs from Matebeleland so that they can try and rebury all those people who died during Gukurahundi so that they can be given a decent burial," she said.
"The work that has been done by our chiefs is important. I liked it so much because when we were growing up way back, the chiefs would look at the people from their area and take note whether there is drought or not. If there is drought it was the responsibility of the chief to look, for example cows so that they will provide milk for the children. This is where the issue of having a specific place where the chiefs keep their food stocks comes in," she said.
"Today, we realise that there are children who are so slim because of drought, some have stunted growth. During our time, our chiefs used to work so much and we never had such cases. Those who used to experience such cases, they used to take them to other families who were known to be doing well and it was the responsibility again of the chiefs to keep checking whether that child is being taken care of properly or not."
She said if not, they would take the child back to their families.
"There are some people who come from other areas and I know most of them who are coming from different provinces do not listen to the chiefs. I therefore, support the speaker who said that everybody is supposed to be allocated land where they stay according to their culture."
She said as a result, it will be easy for the chiefs to allocate residential areas to the people in their community.
"I, therefore, ask the Government to empower the chiefs to instill the culture that they want in the people from their community. One speaker highlighted again on the issue of Chimoio, that they fought so much but we are realising that the people have forgotten about this. I urge all the chiefs from Matebeleland and Midlands that if they can look seriously on the issue of people who died during Gukurahundi. I am urging all the chiefs from Matebeleland so that they can try and rebury all those people who died during Gukurahundi so that they can be given a decent burial," she said.
Source - Byo24News
Join the discussion
Loading comments…
