Maravi

Chisunka urges fellow chiefs to rehabilitate their own palaces

Chisunka urges fellow chiefs to rehabilitate their own palaces
Written by Mwila Chansa in Kitwe
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 11:13:44 AM

LUAPULA Royal Foundation (LRF) secretary chief Chisunka has urged fellow chiefs in the province to strive to improve their own palaces instead of solely depending on the government to do it for them.

In an interview yesterday, chief Chisunka observed that solely depending on the government to do everything somehow compromised traditional leaders.

He advised that traditional leaders work hand-in-hand with their subjects in renovating or building houses in their respective palaces.

"God has given us subjects and we can use what we call our royal establishments to open small accounts so that our subjects can make small contributions," he said.

"For example, we can say 'chief Chisunka's people, make contributions towards the building of a house for the chief'. When someone deposits money into that account, a copy can be kept to ensure transparency."

Chief Chisunka said by so doing, chiefs could lessen their dependence on the government.

He said although the government may assist, they could only come in where chiefs had failed.

"For example, we can use our subjects from one village to mould bricks while others from another village can burn them, others can start the building and we would just move in to buy roofing sheets and other things using money from the account that I talked about and then government can only come in where we fail," said chief Chisunka.

He said even subjects that lived in urban areas would contribute to chiefs’ welfare because they would feel embarrassed to visit a chief living in a dilapidated house.

And chief Chisunka appealed to the government to work on feeder roads in his chiefdom.

He said although most farmers received their inputs in good time, it would be difficult to take their produce to the market given the current state of roads.

Chief Chisunka also said an expectant mother in his chiefdom died a fortnight ago because she had to be carried on a bicycle for a distance of 35 kilometers for her to access the nearest clinic.

Chief Chisunka also said the poor state of the road also contributed to the death.

Recently during a tour by Luapula Province minister Dr Boniface Kawimbe, a number of chiefs complained to the government over the deplorable state of houses in their respective palaces and appealed for help.

Labels: CHIEF CHISUNKA, LUAPULA PROVINCE

posted by MrK @ 11:15 AM