After telling delegates at the Zanu PF annual conference
that chiefs would not leave the ruling party, he told NewsDay yesterday that he
was openly violating the Constitution because chiefs could not be bound by any
law as their institution was there before laws were made.
“What Constitution? What came first, the Constitution or
the chiefs? We came first as chiefs before the Constitution,” he said.
“I exhausted that in my speech and all those criticising me
do not know anything,” he added while insisting there was nothing amiss about
his declaration of support for Zanu PF.
On Friday last week, Charumbira told delegates at the Zanu
PF conference in Bindura that the traditional leaders were the owners of the
party.
“We come as owners of the party. The reason for the
existence of Zanu PF is all about traditional leadership and it is about
injustice,” Chief Charumbira said.
Chapter 15.2 of the Constitution stipulates that
traditional leaders are not allowed to bear allegiance to any political party
or to participate in partisan politics.
Zanu PF secretary for legal affairs Munyaradzi Paul
Mangwana claimed that although chiefs were not allowed to dabble in politics,
they had a right to express their views.
“They are saying they associate themselves with the
philosophies which underpin Zanu PF. Every political party can also articulate
its philosophies in line with what the traditional leaders want,” he said.
“They are not supposed to interfere in the political space,
but they have a right to participate and associate themselves with a political
party of their choice. You have to balance between the right to interfere in
the political space and express a view which is in line with a particular
political part.” Newsday
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