Seventeen-year-old Mswati Willard Kanjedza Gomani’s three-year wait came to pass on Sunday as he was officially installed as Inkosi ya Makosi Gomani V of the Maseko Ngoni at a colourful ceremony graced by Malawi President Joyce Banda.
In her remarks during the function held at Lizulu in Ntcheu, the President described the commander of the Maseko Ngoni, who aspires to become a lawyer to enhance his leadership skills, as anointed by God and asked his advisers to refrain from taking advantage of his tender age to influence unpalatable decisions.
The President, who was dressed in Ngoni traditional wear, also asked family members to support the Paramount Chief Gomani V who succeeds his father, the late Inkosi ya Makosi Gomani IV, who died on September 19 2009.
Until Sunday, Rosemary Malinki, Mswati’s aunt, had been acting on behalf of the youthful chief who is a student at Kamuzu Academy in Kasungu.
“Be a role model to the youth as well,” advised the President after Ntcheu district commissioner Mcloud Kadam’manja had invoked the Chief’s Act on Installation of Chiefs.
The President also said government is looking forward to the paramount chief to sustain culture.
Earlier, impi professor Timpunza Mvula gave a background to the Gomani chieftaincy which he said traces its roots to South Africa and Swaziland.
Malinki presented a gift to President Banda for her bravery and inspiration work since assuming office on April 7 2012 after the death of president Bingu wa Mutharika.
But an emotional Malinki nearly spoiled the party when she touched on the sensitive issues of the wrangles that rocked the chieftaincy after assuming the role of the regent in 2009.
The jam-packed Lizulu Community Day Secondary School ground exploded into a chorus, asking Malinki to tone down, but, as a wounded buffalo, she continued her attacks on some family members arguing that they are not even directly linked to the chieftaincy.
Ntcheu North Member of Parliament Assan Lipande asked President Banda to rehabilitate the house of the paramount chief.
Several people attended the function, including MCP president John Tembo, Speaker of Parliament Henry Chimunthu Banda, Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo, Cabinet ministers, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secretary general Elias Wakuda Kamanga and former official government hostess Mama Cecilia Tamanda Kadzamira.
