Police camp at chief’s headquarters after skirmishes over chieftainship wrangle
Malawi Police in Mchinji have camped at chief Zulu’s headquarters in Mchinji as security check following skirmishes that left four five houses torched over chieftainship wrangles.
This week a warring faction of the Zulu chieftaincy wrangle, Masala Jere, allegedly torched the residence of chief Zulu, now occupied by a Zengeli Jere faction.
In retaliation, the Zengeli faction followers allegedly burned to ashes four houses belonging to the rival Masala Jere faction.
This prompted running battles between the two factions of the same family and police were called in to quell the situation.
Police spokesperson in Mchinji Maxmus Bakali said the atmosphere was still tense and the police decided to camp in the area to pacify the situation.
He could not tell for how long the police will be there.
The police are also patrolling the volatile area to avert any clashes of the two warring factions.
In 2015, a High Court ruling said the chieftaincy belongs to the Zengeli family. However, this did not go down well with the Masala Jere faction which appealed to the ngoni supreme leader in Zambia, Mpezeni, who ruled in favour of the Masala Jere faction which said it had been in power for over a hundred years.
Local government minister Kondwani Nankhumwa says people should always find peaceful ways of settling chieftaincy wrangles, saying the longer they take to resolve, the longer they affect development programs.
WHICH TERRITORIAL BOUNDARIES DO THESE CHIEFS USE?
LET THE MALAWI COURT RULING PREVAIL. MPEZENI IS NOT A MALAWIAN.
IF WE ALLOW FOREIGN CHIEFS TO RULE ACROSS THE BORDER, WE ARE INVITING REAL TROUBLE. A ZAMBIAN CHIEF CAN NOT RULE ON MALAWIAN CHIEFS AS IF THE SALARIES FOR THE CHIEFS WILL COME FROM ZAMBIA.
TAMVANA ZIMENEZO?