Brighton Chiseva
As the 2023 elections beckon, early stages of the poll are underway with the National Chiefs’ council having been elected in all the country’s eight none metropolitan provinces, and the same old faces have been elected in Masvingo Province.
Masvingo Province has five posts of chiefs who will represent the province in the national council and the sitting Chiefs’ Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira was elected together with senators Nhema of Zaka and Chitanga of Mwenezi.
34 Chiefs participated in the election which was conducted by the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) at the Chiefs’ Hall in Masvingo.
On the first post, Chief Charumbira, Chief Neromwe of Chiredzi born Clemence Madzingo and Chief Serima born Vengai Rushwaya of Gutu district were nominated and Charumbira went on to garner 27 votes and Neromwe got seven votes and Serima failed to get a single vote.
The second post was a Chivi – Mwenezi contest, Chief Chitanga born Feleni Chauke won with the highest number in the entire election with 28 votes against Chief Nemauzhe real name Nelson Murandu of Chivi who got a paltry of six votes.
The third post was a Zaka affair between Chief Nhema Born Rangarirai Bwawanda who currently sits in senate and Chief Ndanga born Wilson Makono where Nhema got 24 votes outgunning Ndanga who got 10
Chief Serima sailed uncontested for the fourth post while Chief Mazungunye (Lazarus Maitisi of Bikita got 22 against Chief Mugabe (Matubede Mudavanhu) who got 11 votes for the fifth position.
A total of 36 chiefs were elected into the council of chiefs with the Electoral College being made up of all substantive chiefs.
The second stage will be the election of the Council President and Vice president which is currently being held by Charumbira and Chief Lukas Khumalo from Matebelaland North Province.
However, Charumbira who is the current President of the Pan African Parliament will not be eligible to contest for presidency as he completed his two terms as per constitutional requirements.
After that, the third stage will be the election of two senator Chiefs for senate in each province excluding Harare and Bulawayo.
