Former Ntabazinduna Chief Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni, who was dethroned by the government, has urged the president of the Zimbabwe Chiefs Council, Chief Fortune Zephania Charumbira to resign after his niece reported him to the police for allegedly sexually abusing her.
Charumbira, who is also the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) president, was reported to the police in Masvingo over a week ago for allegedly sexually abusing his 27-year-old married niece.
Speaking to The Standard from the United Kingdom, Ndiweni said Charumbira’s case exposes the breakdown of the rule of law in the country. He said:
The government of the day, the ruling ZANU PF, has been playing around with the legislation for quite some time and they have been very slow, on purpose, to re-align laws with the 2013 constitution.
As a result of this, it has opened a huge gap within our laws whereby people do not get to know where they stand and some people took the view that if you are a card-carrying member of ZANU PF, you are above the law.
Ndiweni said that Charumbira has tarnished the image of traditional leaders and should therefore immediately step down. He said:
If he doesn’t step away, it tarnishes the whole institution of traditional leaders.
Here we are not looking at whether he was guilty or innocent or what were the details, we are just looking at the allegations per se.
He has tarnished all chiefs of Zimbabwe because of these particular allegations and there is no way any Member of Parliament can see him in a different light.
As long as the allegations came out, a docket has been compiled, it has been forwarded (to Harare), which alone shows that people are taking the case seriously.
It is the darkest day the institution of traditional leaders has faced in a long, long time,” Ndiweni said.
It means one single individual has now tarnished the whole institution.
Charumbira once defied a High Court order to issue a public apology after he claimed that all traditional leaders belonged to ZANU PF. The Constitution of Zimbabwe says traditional leaders must be apolitical.
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