Source: ‘Ndebele king coronation unconstitutional’ – DailyNews Live
Blessings Mashaya 11 March 2018
HARARE – Local Government minister July Moyo has said the coronation of
Ndebele King Bulelani Lobengula Khumalo is illegal, as there is no
provision for a king in Zimbabwe’s Constitution.
Speaking in the Senate last week, Moyo said only chiefs were recognised in
the new Constitution.
This comes as High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese recently dismissed
the urgent application by South Africa-based Bulelani Lobengula Khumalo,
who wanted to be installed king, ruling that it was illegal to do so under
the Zimbabwean Constitution.
“Together, we enacted a new Constitution. The chiefs were participants in
that Constitution making process. In our Constitution, it is very clear
that the traditional leaders as defined in the Constitution are in three
parts only, the first one is a chief, in Shona ndi mambo, in Ndebele
Induna but in our Constitution it is the chief. Then there is a headman
and there is a village head. So, when people who wanted to have a king
wrote to us, we advised that in our Constitution we have no provision for
a King.
“Fortunately, for us as Zimbabweans, when South Africans were making their
Constitution we participated in many ways and they put in their
Constitution that they will have kings who are in their localities. We do
not have that in Zimbabwe.
“So, our advice was that we cannot have a king when it is not provided for
by law…That is what the Constitution says.”
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