Chiefs Demanding More

The co- Minister of The National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration has castigated the extended privileges the government is providing to the chiefs. The minister’s concern is that the privileges offered to the chiefs “isolates” them from their people. (Newsday 17/03/2012).

Chiefs are on record demanding luxurious cars, houses, guns. Minister then condemns the development claiming that chiefs will always have their external agendas as they will be moving up and down therefore deserting their people.  In such an environment development is not feasible.

However these developments have great impact on the Zimbabwean political terrain. The government seems to be so much concerned about the plight of the chiefs. This might be a disguise strategy by the ZANU PF to gain popularity. These developments occur in a period when the President Robert Mugabe is calling for elections and the party’s popularity seem to be fading away. Chiefs has one point in time condemned for being partisan which the largely affected the lives of the people in communities especially during election periods.

One of the troubling issues is that the government is empowering the people who already “resource” leaving the poor to sink deep into poverty.