San community selects chief, headman
THE San community in Tsholotsho has selected Goledama Christopher Dube as its chief, a process which has given the community hope that all their challenges will now be addressed.
The event took place on Wednesday at Butabubili in ward 8 where Zekius Tshuma was nominated for the post of headman.
Tsoro-o-otso San Development Trust director Davy Ndlovu yesterday told Southern Eye that the San were the only tribe that had no chief, hence the selection of Dube as chief.
“The chief has not been installed, this was just a selection process. There are many things we want as a community which are not being addressed. All along we had no representation, and, therefore, the community found it difficult to have their needs met,” Ndlovu said.
“This means a lot to the community because the chief will facilitate development of the community.”
On selection criteria, Ndlovu said: “We had to trace this as a community and found that there were three families.
“On the chief’s side we saw that there was no descendant of the 1902 leader chief Goledama.
“The community then agreed that since none of Goledama children were alive; let us choose from his grandsons. That is how the community got to choose Dube.”
Ndlovu said initially the San people had no surnames and copied what they saw happening in neighbouring Botswana.
“It was the first time for the community to see many government officials and they were happy. Government officials, who were there, were just facilitating the process but allowed everything else to be done by the community as they selected their leader.”
When Southern Eye tried to reach out to the chief, he was said to be busy with the issue of fingerprints.
The community has been embracing modern life and mainstream development.
It recently joined the local communities and even turned up for the typhoid vaccination campaign.
Often labelled primitive by other ethnic groups, the San community has been one of the most misunderstood as they chose to live in the forests and shunned modern civilisation.