Chiefs seek quarterly meetings with President
TRADITIONAL chiefs have requested to meet President Mnangagwa at least four times a year to discuss issues concerning their welfare, corruption, preservation of culture and development in general.
Speaking during their inaugural meeting with new Midlands Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Cde Owen Ncube, Midlands Chiefs Senator, Chief Ngungubane, said it was their desire to meet the Head of State and Government quartely.
He said chiefs were solidly behind President Mnangagwa and his leadership and expressed optimism in the new dispensation.
They had taken heed of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s call to fight corruption and would complement Government in its endeavour to bring back normalcy.
“As traditional leaders, we are straight forward and we speak the truth. We are different from politicians who shower praises on leaders without telling the truth on what is obtaining on the ground. ”
“President Mnangagwa touched on a serious issue of corruption and that is very necessary. As the chiefs provincial council, we will seek audience with President Mnangagwa and the provincial administrator on a different platform to discuss those issues. We want time to meet with the President even quarterly and discuss such issues.
“The previous dispensation was characterised bya lot of nepotism and corruption in the allocation of resources to the chiefs and we would want a lot of things to change and chiefs to be treated the same,” he said.
Chief Ngungubane said there was need for Government to also prioritise and resuscitate Zunde RaMambo/ Isiphala seNkosi in its fight against poverty and hunger.
He said chiefs, through Zunde RaMambo/Isiphala seNkosi, wanted to benefit from Command Agriculture and the Presidential Input Support Scheme programmes.
“We would want to complement Government efforts to avert hunger and alleviate poverty as espoused in the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).
“We want to benefit from agricultural programmes such as Command Agriculture and Presidential Input Support Scheme so the we resuscitate Zunde RaMambo/Isiphala seNkosi where we set aside land for crop production that would be deposited into the community granary from where the underprivileged families will be fed as well as those affected by drought and floods,” he said.