TREAD WITH CARE
…Paramount chieftaincy debate transcends law – Sinkamba
By Charles Musonda
THE Constitutional Court’s refusal to join paramount chiefs Chitimukulu, Kalonga Gawa Undi and the Litunga to a petition seeking recognition of Chief Mukuni as a paramount chief is unfair, says Green Party (GP) president Peter Sinkamba.
The three traditional leaders applied to join the case as interested parties, arguing that the decision could have far-reaching consequences for the institution of chieftaincy and traditional governance in Zambia.
But Justice Pixie Yangailo ruled that the three traditional leaders failed to establish the legal requirements for joinder.
Commenting on the ruling, Sinkamba said the court should not have been pedantic in a traditional matter.
He said the law should never be applied strictly, given that the traditional leaders were affected in some way.
“The court should have attended to those two paramount chiefs and the king as friends of the court in this matter because they are people who understand this traditional historical background and there is no scholar who is going to come and talk about those things better than those people,” Sinkamba said.
“They have this history; they have lived with all these decades being paramount chiefs. They have records before what we call Zambia where there was Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia, and North-eastern Rhodesia.”
Sinkamba said the court had lost an opportunity to benefit from the historical background of traditional setup and hierarchy.
“I am so disappointed that the court became so pedantic and narrow in the approach to this matter, which is a very big issue for the nation,” he said.
History had proved that there were far-reaching and disastrous consequences in the long run when courts were overly concerned with minor issues instead of looking at the national interest in sensitive matters.
“…when the same Constitutional Court ruled that President Hakainde Hichilema failed to argue his 2016 presidential election petition within 14 days, there was an uprising in Southern Province where lives were lost and property destroyed, targeting people perceived to have originated from the Bembaland and Eastern region,” Sinkamba said.
He said the Constitutional Court risked causing similar tension in the affected regions should it rule to the dissatisfaction of other parties, especially in Barotseland where the Litunga’s influence extends to Livingstone, where Senior Chief Mukuni’s chiefdom is.
Sinkamba said traditional land issues were sensitive matters that had caused civil wars in other countries.
He cited an incident in which a civil war almost broke out when Chief Shakumbila’s subjects resolved to take up spears against their rivals under Senior Chieftainess Nkomeshya when there was a boundary dispute between the two.
