Minister chides Kasungu chiefs

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Kondwani Nankhumwa has accused chiefs in Kasungu of fuelling divisions among people in the district.

Speaking on Tuesday during an installation ceremony of five chiefs at Kasungu boma, Nankhumwa said some traditional leaders are promoting divisions as they scramble for smaller chiefs.

He said: “Government relies on chiefs to foster development. But it is unfortunate that some chiefs in Kasungu are promoting divisions among themselves instead of concentrating on promotion of cultural values and the development agenda.

“Some Traditional Authorities (T/As) are scrambling for smaller chiefs whereby one T/A is convincing smaller chiefs to denounce their loyalty to their T/A so that they should shift the loyalty to another T/A.  This should stop.”

In a telephone interview later, Nankhumwa complained that the divisions are retarding development projects in the district. He did not mention the names of the accused chiefs but urged them to change for the sake of development.

One of the residents, Symon Mkhwasu, from T/A Mwase in the district, agreed that the divisions are fuelled by chiefs and that many people are no longer interested to participate in development work due to these decisions.

“I hope the minister’s statement will help the chiefs to stop these unnecessary conflicts. We need development not conflicts,” said Mkhwasu.

Some of the installed chiefs were T/A Kaphaizi, Sub-T/A (S-T/A) Mnyanja, S-T/A Chitantha Mapiri and S-T/A Mangwazu. n