The government is saddened with the continued chieftainship wrangles that have perpetrated most chiefdoms in Southern province.
Southern province Minister Cornelius Mweetwa says about nine chiefdoms in the Province have had no chiefs for years due to continuous succession disputes among family members.
Speaking when he officiated at the first-ever Budima cultural festival in Sinazongwe, Mr. Mweetwa said although the government has no intentions of interfering with the process of selecting a chief for any chiefdom, it is now considering bringing royal families together to a negotiating table.
He said lack of chiefs in the nine chiefdoms in the region has had negative effect on development programmes.
Meanwhile Sinazongwe Member of Parliament Gift Sialubalo says it is unfortunate that Sinazongwe district has no chief at a time that more resources have been allocated for constituency development fund which require the input of chiefs.
Mr Sialubalo has since called on the royal families of Senior Chief Mweemba and chief Sinazongwe to put aside their differences and install Chiefs for the sake of developing the district.
The chiefdom of Sinazongwe has had no Chief since the death of Chief Sinazongwe, three years ago while Mweemba Chiefdom has had no chief since the incumbent traditional ruler’s untimely death in July, 2021.
You need to have proper succession system in place. In certain areas only those born in the palace can succeed to chieftaincy. Others only nephews can succeed. Records are kept of which family has ruled, currently ruling and who will rule next. Please put your act together and save your subjects unnecessary anxiety.
Let the wrangles continue so that they can get divided. I don’t care even if they fight. They are useless.
There succession problems in patrilineal chiefdoms lik ILAs of Namwala, Ngonis, Tumbukas and Lozi because the oldest sons or the one chosen by elders automatically takes over. Only the matrilineal Chiefdoms have challenges choosing a chief because of too many mothers arguing and trying to help their children takeover. There is no property grabbing at the death of any man in patrilineal systems but lots of inheritance fights in matrilineal systems.
The Bible succession system is patrilineal , simple and straight . WHY SHOULD YOU WORK HARD AND ACCUMULATE WEALTH BECAUSE YOUR SISTER HAS CHILDREN TO INHERIT FROM YOU? NONSENSE!!!! WE WORK FOR OUR CHILDREN AND NOT OUR SISTERS CHILDREN. WITH DNA TESTING AROUND ALL THIS MATRILINEAL NONSENSE SHOULD COME TO AN END
Southern province has a council of Chiefs whose Chair is HRH Chief Mukuni, if he still holds that position. One of their roles is to settle succession disputes but they elected to do politics. At the height of wrangles in Mwanachingwala an audio went viral in which HRH Chieftainess Mweenda was being admonished as rogue because she chose to work with government to bring development to Chikankata. Isn’t a shame that these disputes have persisted for such a long time as if there are no traditional leaders that can preside over these matters?
They must resolve this issue because when CDF Funds starts flowing in it will “never” work. Tiffs will get worse. A house/community that has no peace and quarrels cannot move forward.
They need to find wise elders from southern province to call all those that are squabbling to rise above Pettiness, Greediness and Power-Hungry, which are normally the root cause of such problems.
Chief Mukuni the attack dog, as a senior chief likes barking all the time, yet he fails to put his house in order and resolve problems. He is nothing but a hypocrite. It’s good that Cornelius Mweetwa has come out in the open and exposed them. Let us call Chief Mukuni what he is without fear and favour.
These are the tribal chiefs who ensured your victory at the polls. Now that they are fighting amongst themselves you want want to involve us? Those are your problems.
Let them continue bickering and the longer it takes finally Zambia may arrive at the Nyerere solution and dissolve chiefdoms!