Maravi

Chiefs accuse UPND of fanning tension

Chiefs accuse UPND of fanning tension
By Henry Chibulu in Mazabuka
Sun 11 Mar. 2012, 11:58 CAT

SOME chiefs in Southern Province have accused the UPND of fanning tension and challenged the provincial royal foundation to clearly tell the nation the donors funding traditional rulers invited to attend a regional stakeholders meeting in Choma tomorrow.

And Chieftainess Mwenda says the UPND is responsible for the current tension between the government and traditional rulers in Southern Province over re-alignment of some districts.

Chiefs Musungwa of Itzehi-tezhi, Mwanachingwala, Mwenda and Hanjalika said chiefs on their own had no capacity to raise funds for such huge meetings that require huge resources.

Chief Musungwa said the pocket agenda being propagated by chiefs Mukuni and Chikanta on behalf of the opposition UPND would soon be exposed and the truth known.

He said it was wrong for the chiefs to hide their true colours using the re-alignment of Itezhi-tezhi and Chirundu districts to Central and Lusaka provinces respectively.

He said it had become clear that the two leaders were equally bitter with the loss their political party, UPND, suffered during last September's elections.

Chief Musungwa observed that the debate on re-aligning Itezhi-tezhi should be left to the people of Itezhi-tezhi to decide and not a clique of traditional rulers hired to fight the government.

Chief Musungwa charged that there was no way traditional rulers in the province could choose to work hand in hand with the opposition to bring down a legitimate government by frustrating its efforts of decentralising government operations instead of offering solutions to government.

He also wondered who the chiefs were representing on the re-alignment of Itezhi-tezhi district to Central Province because the local people were happy with government and could not wait for the policy to be implemented.

"Issues of customs and traditional cannot work because people of Central Province are not different from Southern, we are Bantu Botatwe. In fact, Mumbwa district in Central Province was born from Namwala which also gave birth to Itezhi-tezhi, so where is the problem? Let my counterparts stop making unnecessary noise," advised chief Musungwa.

Chief Musungwa further challenged the organisers of the meeting to tell the nation why chiefs in Itezhi-tezhi have not been invited for the meeting despite also being affected by the re-alignment.

"We are smelling a rat here. Common sense demands that a person affected by a policy direction such as the re-alignment of Itezhi-tezhi be allowed to explain whether or not he is happy or unhappy, but unfortunately some chiefs who claim to be champions are speaking and opposing on behalf of people that have been crying for change in the administration of the district. We have been advocating for government to re-align the district in terms of administration because we have continued to suffer due to long distance to Livingstone and because of the floods that every year cut off our district from the rest of Southern Province. Our only nearest administrative province is Central and our people arrested are prosecuted in Mumbwa. So where is the problem of Itezhi-tezhi belonging to Central Province?'' asked chief Musungwa.

Chief Mwanachingwala said calls by chiefs to split the province were unnecessary because government had not included that in its budget.

He said chiefs should not involve politicians as doing so would dilute their case.

Chief Mwanachingwala said splitting a province was an expensive undertaking than re-aligning some districts.

He said chiefs should appoint a committee to express their grievances to government than involving the opposition to resolve the problem.

Chief Hanjalika said he would not attend the Choma meeting because organisers were bent on fighting government instead of allowing dialogue to take its course.

He said he regretted attending the first Choma meeting because the level of debate was politically motivated.

Chieftainess Mwenda said UPND should not hold government at ransom because the opposition party does not own the people of Southern Province.

She said UPND was responsible for the current tension between government and traditional rulers.

Recently, President Michael Sata accused some chiefs in Southern Province of double standards.

He said some chiefs who were against the re-alignment of districts wanted Southern Province to be split.

Labels: CHIEFS, CHIEFTAINESS MWENDA, SOUTHERN PROVINCE, UPND

posted by MrK @ 5:30 PM