ViewFromMatopos
They are striking similarities between the rise of Nelson Chamisa to the helm of the MDC-T and the current on-going attempts by Felix Ndiweni to grab the Ndiweni Chieftainship of Ntabazinduna in Matabeleland North. Interestingly, both cases are before the courts of law.
While Chamisa snatched power at Tsvangirai’s funeral wake, Felix the fourth child of the late Ndiweni circumvented all the traditional practices usually followed to install a new chief following the death of his father Chief Khayisa Ndiweni.
The rightful heir to the Ndiweni chieftainship according to custom is Jorum Thambo Ndiweni the eldest son of the late Chief Ndiweni. Felix is number four coming after his sister Lydia.
But how did he come to be recognised by Government to an extent of receiving allowances and a vehicle.
His unheralded arrival in Zimbabwe after he was deported from the United Kingdom coincided with dirty machinations of the now fallen G40 proponents.
To be precise, in Felix the G40 key proponents Prof Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Zhuwao found a traditional weapon in Matabeleland region gullible enough to advance their cause.
Zhuwao who at some point superintended over the Community Ownership Trust used stipends drawn from the programme to lure the poverty struck Felix. Zhuwao would never miss a trip to Ntabazinduna whenever he was on state or private business in Bulawayo. When the then two ministers had Felix where they wanted him to be, they moved on to coerce senior Government officials within the Ministry of Local Government’s Mhlahlandlela Complex in Bulawayo to initiate paper work to have Felix recognised as the Acting Chief. The rest is history and is now being rectified.
But for a man who spent two decades in the United Kingdom and incorporated as a beneficiary of the Crown Queen why did he come back to Zimbabwe following the death of his father. Read on.
Felix who claims to have at least 15 degrees including that of Law, did not actually complete his studies in the UK. He enrolled as an Engineering student but never sat foot into the classes as he squandered tuition fees that was being wired to the UK by his late father on alcohol and women. The late Chief Ndiweni died a bitter man over the irresponsible actions of his stray son. His brother Thambo also disowned him as a result of his rogue behaviour.
As life became difficult for him in the UK after the late Chief stopped sending him “tuition” fees and his allowances from the Crown Queen stopped, Felix sought a job where he ended up being employed as a security guard. But once he had money in his pocket he would revert to his wild habits of partying and women and forget to report for duty. He was later fired. He sued his former employers in vein.
With the loss of his job and now enmeshed in poverty, Felix became a nuisance resulting in his deportation from the UK. The circumstances surrounding his deportation is a story for another day.
Felix did not mourn his father who passed on in 2010. While the rest of the Ndiweni clan where still in mourning like Chamisa, Felix wrote his script to snatch the throne. He stopped resisting his deportation and was flown back home. He now had his eyes set on the throne that would in turn become his new source of income.
Not being that stupid, Felix knew the hurdles back home that would stall his machinations. The major hurdle would be his younger brother Douglas who would team up with their elder siblings in the UK. Manipulating her old mother, Felix sought a peace order barring Douglas from entering the Ndiweni palace. This was despite the fact that Douglas was the only child who had remained with his parents in Zimbabwe when the rest of the siblings went to UK.
Then with Douglas out of the way and with the assistance of the aforementioned former G40 ministers and gullible Ministry of Local Government officials the troublesome Ndiweni was created and he continues on the path he was created for. But will he triumph, we live to see that, as the drama unfolds.
By and large Felix, who was deported from the United Kingdom where he had spent over two decades is understood to be entering the political space as a ploy to get a political asylum ticket that might help him over turn his London persona non grata status.
