Senior chief Mwamba refutes Nkula's paramountcy claim
By Bivan Saluseki
Fri 18 Jan. 2013, 13:40 CAT
SENIOR Chief Mwamba has refuted claims by the acting Senior Chief Nkula (alias Kafula Mucheleka Lukaka) that President Michael Sata has instructed Bashilubemba (hereditary councilors ) to appoint him as Paramount Chief Chitimukulu.
Chief Mwamba yesterday said he found it to be very impertinent to bring the name of the head of state in such malicious and unfounded falsehoods, which gave the impression that the President was meddling in Bemba traditional affairs.
"Sub-Chief Chimba who acts as regent during the lengthy burial rites of Chitimukulu has vehemently denied having met the President. In fact the Supreme Court judgment No. 25 of 2008 clearly states: 'having affirmed the position that the choice of a Chitimukulu, Bashilubemba have a final say','' he explained.
"In fact, the acting chief Nkula's appointment to chieftainship has been shrouded in cunning jockeyship. He was hurriedly appointed Senior Chief Nkula and culturally installed by bypassing his elder brother the late Senior Chief Nkula (James Ngandu), just because there was a conspiracy by the late Mwine Lubemba Chitimukulu Mwango and his consort to prevent me from ascending to Chitimukuluship. But unfortunately that plan was aborted since State House quickly detected the conspiracy and demoted him to the position of chief Chikwanda. The conspirators in their hurried plans overlooked to check his family background since he has twins which according to Bemba tradition norms, anyone who has given birth to twins cannot see Babenye (tribal relics - sacred objects that are inherited with the name and post). This actually means in practice that he was automatically disqualified to hold any Bemba chiefly position. I don't even understand why he should even aspire to be the Paramount Chief when in fact his position as a Bemba chief will have to be reviewed by Ilamfya Bemba Supreme Council because of the anomaly."
According to intelligence reports, chief Nkula has been going round telling people that the President had instructed the Bemba council to make him the new Chitimukulu.
According to chief Mwamba, the Bemba political system is one of the most revolutionary in the world and admittedly succession is very intricate because their political system was highly complex.
For example, the positions of Senior Chief Mwamba and Senior Chief Nkula are the most senior in the Bemba hierarchy, but it does not automatically mean that anyone in those positions can succeed to the paramountcy.
Another guiding line is that there is no sequence of chiefly names leading to the paramountcy, but only relationships and a new Paramount may step up from being Mwamba or Nkula or from being a man with no earlier post.
Although Mwamba is regarded as the second in power and honour, he need not be the right man to succeed in every case as Paramount.
It is relationship that counts, not possession of a particular chieftainship.
The Chitimukulu died in April last year.
Labels: CHIEF MWAMBA, CHIEF NKULA, CHIEFS, MICHAEL SATA
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Private ownership of land is a foreign ideology – Chief Mwamba
By Moses Kuwema and Henry Sinyangwe
Sat 31 July 2010, 03:50
SENIOR chief Mwamba of the Bemba speaking people in Kasama has said private ownership of land is a foreign ideology.
In his submissions to the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) yesterday, chief Mwamba said
the current administration of land by traditional authorities was more transparent and democratic since the village heads and communities were the real custodians of land.
“Our system is that the land is yours for as long as you work on it, and the fruits of your labour belong to you. But you don’t own it. It is the people’s property,” he said.
“The current system of land allocations requires persons seeking land to go first to the community through village committees, headed by village heads, before the final approval by the concerned chief. Therefore, we are demanding the removal of Clause 4 as contained in the NCC draft constitution.”
Clause 4, subsection 3 in article 290 of the draft report reads as follows:
“Customary land shall not be alienated or otherwise used until the approval of the chief and local authority in whose area the land is situated has first been obtained and as may be provided by or under an Act of Parliament.”
Subsection 4 reads: “An approval under the clause (3) shall not be unreasonably withheld.”
Chief Mwamba observed that in its proposed form, Clause 4 had a bearing on Clause 3, because the provisions in Clause 4 delude the powers of Clause 3.
“Furthermore, the wording ‘unreasonably’ is not only very ambiguous but also relative. There are no parameters attached in Clause 4 which may clearly define what may constitute ‘unreasonable’,” observed chief Mwamba.
He said Clause 4 did not specify the authority that shall declare the decisions of traditional authority under Clause 3 to be unreasonable.
“The contents in Clause 4 do not appear anywhere in the interim report of the Constitution Review Commission and therefore a group of very unreasonable persons have smuggled very unreasonable, unrealistic and unacceptable provisions which are totally against the interests of the peasants in the rural areas into the draft constitution of the republic of Zambia,” said chief Mwamba.
He has since collected about 2,500 signatures demanding the removal of the clause.
And Evelyn Hone College students yesterday submitted that the Law Association of Zambia must be given the authority to come up with a committee that sits to appoint senior judicial officers.
The students noted that presidential appointments to the judiciary was seen to be compromising institution hence the need for LAZ to do it.
Labels: CHIEF MWAMBA, LAND RIGHTS, NCC, TITLE DEEDS
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Chief Mwamba counsels political parties over violence
By Moses Kuwema
Mon 19 July 2010, 13:40 CAT
SENIOR chief Mwamba of Northern Province has said the pronouncements of peaceful elections by the MMD and PF spokespersons will only be realised if the competing parties don’t send cadres from other areas into the constituencies where elections are being held.
In an interview, chief Mwamba of the Bemba people of Kasama said there was need to “lean on history” in order to understand the root causes of violence that had rocked recently held polls.
“In the first place, we harvested terrible misconceptions about the party in government and the opposition since the colonialists equated opposition with subversion, while on the other hand the government was considered as the oppressor. Consequently in the African context, opposition is regarded as treasonable and the party in government as the oppressor. We shall only free ourselves from the notion that everyone should think alike when the idea of the party in government and the opposition have been institutionalised in our minds,” he said.
Chief Mwamba said it was beyond normal human comprehension for competing parties to deliberately and purposely create a combustible atmosphere in which they delight to see the spillage of human blood.
This, he said, was being caused by sending trucks full of desperate and unemployed youths to go and maim, kill each other and other innocent villagers just for the sake of gaining parliamentary seats.
“And this means that there is need for political leaders to search for deeper roots than the mere mechanisms of unbridled useless false promises during election campaigns,” he said.
Chief Mwamba said political parties lacked the fundamental quest of political philosophy, which he said was the key factor in politics since it was necessary to discover the legitimate reasons for the support given to a political party.
“Our leaders do not have a clear philosophical orientation of where we should be tomorrow since they are in philosophical chasm or mental servitude of the neo-liberal agenda that charts Zambia’s destiny, and hence there is a conflict between rhetoric and reality,” he said.
He said most of the political parties were formed in 2001, mostly on Fredrick Chiluba’s third term bid and other flimsy reasons and, therefore, all the political leaders were on the same political waveband, which explained why they had resorted to insulting each other.
“…And the once respected and dignified office of the President has been diluted to nothingness because all sorts of lavatory language can be poured upon the chief executive and head of state by any cadre without any restraint whatsoever from the political leadership,” said chief Mwamba.
Labels: CHIEF MWAMBA, POLITICAL VIOLENCE
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