Livingstone is in my chiefdom, says Chief Sekute

A wrangle is looming between Chief Sekute of Kazungula District and Senior Chief Mukuni over whose chiefdom between the two the city of Livingstone is located.

This is after Chief Sekute declared that Livingstone City is part of Sekute chiefdom.

Livingstone, which is known to be a city without any attachment to any chiefdom, is largely viewed as an area within Chief Mukuni’s area. This is because his chiefdom is located a few kilometres from the Livingstone town centre although it is in Kazungula District. Chief Sekute staked his claim on Livingstone on Monday when Chiefs and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkandu Luo commissioned a number of infrastructure projects around Victoria Falls world heritage site.

The facilities, which included a steel fence as well as a new ablution block and a curio market, were constructed by the National Heritage Conservation Commission (NCC) in readiness for the 20th session of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly. Chief Sekute said he was very grateful to see wonderful infrastructure being constructed in his chiefdom in Livingstone.

“Livingstone is in my chiefdom and I am happy that my town has been developed within a few months. I wish to sincerely thank Government and the Ministry of Tourism and Arts for wonderful things done to my town,” he said.

In apparent reference to Mukuni Park in Livingstone town centre, Chief Sekute said the right name for the place should have been Barotse Centre and not what it was currently called.

This was after a representative of Senior Chief Mupotola Siloka spoke at the same function to thank the Government for the infrastructure in the city.

Mr Siloka also thanked Government for upgrading Mukuni Road to bituminous standard.

He said tourists would be able to visit the Mukuni chiefdom easily following the upgrading of the road.

But Chiefs and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkando Luo observed that chiefdom wrangles were not peculiar in the country. She urged the two chiefdoms to realise that Zambians were one and hence they should put the interest of citizens first.

“What you witnessed here is not peculiar to chiefdoms and what we are trying to do now is to deal with chiefdom boundaries. We will first of all allow chiefdoms to demarcate their own boundaries and where this will fail, we as Government will come in and regulate, then everybody will know how far they can go. Where the elephants fight, it is the grass which suffers,” Prof Luo said.

Source: Times of Zambia (30 August 2013)