"We Deserve Those Cars More Than Anyone Else": Charumbira Defends Receiving Cars From Mnangagwa

Speaking at Chief Samuel Samambwa’s installation ceremony in Zhombe on Saturday, President of the Zimbabwe Council of Chiefs, Chief Fortune Charumbira said chiefs are unapologetic about the cars they received from President Emmerson Mnangagwa. 

Government recently handed over 52 vehicles to traditional leaders around the country with more to be delivered shortly. Charumbira said that they did not receive the vehicles for free but paid for them. Said Charumbira:

We are unapologetic about the cars we received from President Mnangagwa recently. Those vehicles are necessary for the status, dignity and respect of the traditional leaders. If anything, we deserve those cars more than anyone else in this country. Contrary to popular belief that we were given the cars for free, we actually bought them with our own money. People are just ignorant about this whole thing. The cars were purchased with the money we have been contributing towards the Chiefs’ Vehicle Scheme since 2004. We did not get them for free.

It’s you who designed the new Constitution, the same document which states that chiefs should be dignified and exemplary. Now we are given cars, you question why it is done. If a politician gets a car you do not question, but a chief, you start saying a lot of things. What is the difference? After all a politician only lasts for a short period of time, yet a chief is there for life.

More: Chronicle