The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa will on Friday meet traditional leaders in the country during the Chiefs’ National Conference which will be held at the Harare International Conference Centre.
The national conference is set to deliberate on a number of issues affecting chiefs and their jurisdiction, these ranging from development, to land and also the environment, to mention but a few.
This came out during the just ended National Council of Chiefs meeting that was held at a Bulawayo hotel.
In an interview with Sunday News, president of the National Council of Chiefs, Chief Fortune Charumbira said the national conference is set to start on Thursday and end on Friday.
“One key output from this meeting is that next week on Thursday there will be a meeting for all the chiefs in the country, which we call the National Conference, where on the opening day we will be interacting with different Ministers, raising issues that came out from this Chiefs’ Council, for example on environment we will have the Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality Industry.
“On Friday, His Excellency the President Emmerson Mnangagwa, will attend the meeting, we will share with him various issues, the challenges, the successes, national, provincial issues and the President will have the opportunity to address the chiefs,” said Chief Charumbira.
He revealed the National Council of Chiefs meeting, which began on Wednesday and ended yesterday, had been previously postponed on a number of occasions due to the Covid-19 pandemic hence they had a number of outstanding issues that had to be resolved.
Chief Charumbira said the issues deliberated on included the key strategic areas of operation and also in terms of the National Development Strategy 1, issues to do with agriculture, the issue of environment distraction, preservation, and illegal settlers, the issues to do with traditional courts, the land situation and the food situation prevailing in the country.
“We also had the opportunity to deal with issues on the selection of chiefs. According to the current procedure of appointing a chief, the process requires that the provincial assembly of chiefs under the chairman of that province, constitute a team of a minimum of three chiefs and convene meetings with the particular family, who will then recommend a name, using their own customs and practices.
“If the three chiefs are satisfied with the process taken, the names are then forwarded to the Chiefs Council, so today (Saturday) we considered 18 names from different provinces of new chiefs that are emerging from different jurisdictions,” said Chief Charumbira.
He commended the chiefs for the fruitful deliberations, saying he was confident that this was the same attitude which will be exhibited come the National Conference on Thursday.
