5.1
Are Chiefs
Above the Law?
After telling delegates at the Zanu
PF annual conference that chiefs
would not leave the ruling party,
Chief Fortune Charumbira said he
was openly violating the
Constitution because chiefs could
not be bound by any law as their
institution was there before laws
were made.
“What Constitution? What came
first, the Constitution or the
chiefs? We came first as chiefs
before the Constitution,” he told a
local daily newspaper.
He said there was nothing amiss
about his declaration of support
for Zanu PF.
Chapter 15.2 of the Constitution
provides that traditional leader are
not allowed to bear allegiance to
any political party or to participate
in partisan politics.
Charumbira told delegates at the
Zanu PF conference in Bindura that Traditional leaders have always
been used in past elections to
the traditional leaders were the
coerce citizens to vote for Zanu PF
owners of the party.
and the statements by Charumbira
“We come as owners of the party.
cannot be taken lightly as they are
The reason for the existence of
supposed to represent the position
Zanu PF is all about traditional
of all the chiefs in the country.
leadership and it is about
injustice,”