The government has lambasted a Matabeleland traditional leader Ntabazinduna Chief Nhlanhla Felix Ndiweni for reportedly calling on Western countries to impose more sanctions on Zimbabwe.
The outspoken controversial chief has always been at loggerheads with the Harare administration over issues related to the perceived marginalisation of Matabeleland provinces as well as the 1980s genocide, also known as Gukurahundi whose victims were mainly of Ndebele ethnic origins.
Responding the chief Ndiweni’s latest calls for additional sanctions, the Permanent Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Ndavaningi Nick Mangwana said:
Chief Ndiweni sentiments are deplorable, parochial and ignorant coming from a traditional leader.
It is tragic that one of those constitutionally expected to uphold our customary values and community cohesion has chosen to not only be a controversial political player but to repeat a shameful familial history by calling for suffering to be visited upon the people of Zimbabwe.
It is unfathomable that a community leader from a deprived section of the community has chosen the path of underdevelopment by calling for the escalation of sanctions against the country in the misguided and futile hope that it will help collapse President’s Mnangagwa’s Government.
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