Chief Dingani-Nelukoba of Mabale in Hwange District has appealed to the government to redraw the boundaries of his chiefdom, which he says has been reduced by more than half due to encroachment by neighbouring chiefdoms.
Installed in 1992 succeeding his father who had died four years earlier, Chief Dingani-Nelukoba is one of the five chiefs in Hwange.
The others are Chiefs Nekatambe, Whange, Shana and Mvuthu.
Chief Dingani-Nelukoba’s area borders with Chief Nekatambe who he said invaded parts of his area and his homestead is also situated in his area in Dete, Chief Mabhikwa and Menyezwa in Lupane, Chiefs Pashu and Lubimbi in Binga.
He said his area of jurisdiction originally stretched from Jabatshaba near Jotsholo, covering Fatima, Halfway, Gwayi and parts of Lubimbi and up to Kapani River in Lambo after Dete.
Chief Dingani-Nelukoba said his areas were reduced to between Gwayi and Dete.
He appealed to the Government to redraw the boundaries.
Recently he appealed to Environment Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu who visited his homestead to help push for restoration of his area.
The Minister had visited Chief Dingani-Nelukoba’s homestead to view a nutritional garden started by Zimparks and the International Fund for Animal Welfare for the community.
As the Minister was leaving to go to Chief Nekatambe’s homestead to see a hall built by the same partners for the community, Chief Dingani-Nelukoba made good his plea.
In an interview, the chief said his subjects were affected by the redrawn boundaries.
“All these areas used to report to me. The boundaries were changed in 2003 when they were trying to identify a provincial capital for Matabeleland North. The then governor Welshman Mabhena wanted Dete to be the provincial capital because there was better infrastructure compared to Lupane but that failed.
“We only saw it being gazetted that Gwayi was now under Lupane and Chief Mabhikwa. I complained at several meetings about not being consulted but to no avail,” he said.
The chief said the boundary with Lupane had been further pushed into his area to Ivory Lodge near Cross Mabale.
He said he had engaged different government offices and departments and was still waiting for feedback.
“People report in Lupane yet they are in my area. I can’t be a traditional leader just for cultural purposes and have no area or people to administer. We are waiting for the Government to respond to our issues and we have also engaged Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda who is from this area and we are also waiting for him after he promised to come back to us,” he said.
The chief said his subjects were emotional about the issue of boundaries.
He said his forefathers were the pioneers of the area at a time when there were only two chiefs in Hwange.
“We are the founders of this area and now I have no place of my own. We are called Nelukoba because we allocated part of our area to our neighbours Sawanga (Whange) when they arrived and now Nelukoba has no proper area to administer, that’s not fair,” he said.
