Revisit your recommendations, provincial Chiefs’ Council told

GOVERNMENT has ordered Mashonaland West provincial Chiefs’ Council to revisit their recommendation for a traditional leader to replace acting Chief Chivero.

Addressing a Provincial Chiefs’ Council meeting held in Chinhoyi last week, Mashonaland West provincial administrator Mrs Cecilia Chitiyo said the traditional leaders should not expect Government to accede to their recommendations.

She said the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing had called for the revisitation of the selected family representative who was expected to succeed the acting Chief Chivero.

“I hope we are all aware that there is a possibility that when we make recommendations, we will not be concluding that the elected person is now a chief,” she said.

“So, you made the recommendations and this is a letter from the ministry suggesting you to revisit your decision.”

The Provincial Chiefs’ Council had previously recommended Mr Cornelius Chengera of the Nyahunzvi family to assume the Chivero chieftainship over the Madzorera and Mashutu families.

Government has returned the recommendation letter, although the reason for the decision were not revealed during the meeting. Customarily, after the death of a traditional leader, the next family in line for the chieftainship acts for not more than two years. Chief Chivero had been acting in that capacity for more than four years, with the families failing to agree on who was the next in line to the throne.

Outgoing Provincial Chiefs’ Council chairman Chief Dandawa expressed his reservations towards the Governments decision.

“I am not understanding this confusion,” he said. “We went and talked to the families who agreed that Cornelius Chengera from the Nyahunzvi family is the next in the line to be Chief Chivero.”

Chief Dandawa said it was the Mashutu family’s turn to assume the chieftainship although the family acknowledged that they once neglected the territory.

“It is true that the Nyahunzvi (family has retained this chieftainship over and over again,” he said.

“But they had their argument, saying the Madzoreras and the Mashutus once deserted the territory.”

The dispute over the Chivero chieftainship has been raging for years, with the Provincial Chiefs’ Council battling to bring the matter to finality.