By AldridgeDzvene| Positive Eye News | Domboshava
The beat of ancestral drums may have echoed through Makumbe Visitation Mission in Domboshava, but the questions arising from the installation of Chief Chinamhora XVI were not merely spiritual, they were strategic, developmental, and urgent.
After nearly a decade without a substantive chief, the installation of Richard Jeyi as the 16th Chief Chinamhora marks more than just a ceremonial return to tradition. It represents a pivotal test case: Can traditional leadership play an active, measurable role in modern rural development?
The expectations were clearly set by Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Honourable Daniel Garwe, who presided over the installation. His speech moved beyond the usual cultural niceties. It was a clarion call for traditional leaders to engage meaningfully with pressing national challenges, land barons, cultural erosion, and the spiraling drug crisis among youth.
That a cabinet minister would turn a traditional rite into a policy challenge was no accident. Zimbabwe’s development agenda, especially in peri-urban and communal areas, is being choked by unresolved governance gaps, and traditional leaders are increasingly being seen as essential players in closing them.
But rhetoric aside, what kind of Chief is Richard Jeyi, and does he offer a departure from the norm?
Educated, corporate-trained, and young by traditional standards, the 49-year-old Jeyi brings a rare mix of heritage and modernisation. He holds a Master’s degree in Project Management from the University of Zimbabwe, and has served as a director in the construction sector. These credentials place him at the intersection of tradition and technocracy, a place very few traditional leaders occupy.
And he appears ready to confront the demands.
Speaking to the press moments after his installation, Chief Chinamhora XVI made it clear that he was not assuming the throne for symbolism. He confirmed that he had already begun addressing the land chaos that has plagued Domboshava for years, issuing a local directive that individuals who purchased land but failed to develop it must immediately vacate.
“We will not allow speculation on sacred land,” he said. “Development must be deliberate, lawful, and people-centered.”
This stance alone challenges the often murky relationship between chieftaincies and land barons, a dynamic that in many rural areas has seen traditional leaders either compromised, silenced, or complicit.
But if Chief Chinamhora’s first steps are anything to go by, his administration is positioning itself as reformist , prepared to challenge exploitative land deals and restore order in communal allocations.
The Minister’s second rallying cry, to fight the scourge of drug and substance abuse, resonated equally deeply. Domboshava, like many rural areas near urban fringes, is experiencing a disturbing rise in youth addiction, particularly involving crystal meth and illicit alcohol brews.
Rather than brushing this off as a state matter, Chief Chinamhora XVI pledged to lead from the front, initiating community dialogues, youth mentorships, and rehabilitation networks rooted in both cultural norms and modern support systems.
“Culture must guide discipline, but development must provide purpose. Our youth need structure, opportunity, and protection,” he noted.
These are not words often heard from a newly installed traditional leader. And therein lies the analytical shift, a symbolic role being reimagined as a developmental office.
But for all the early momentum, the test remains whether the Chief’s intentions will be institutionalised into systems, or whether they will wither under bureaucratic resistance, elite pushback, and limited budgets. Development, after all, requires not only declarations, but policy alignment, enforcement muscle, and trusted structures on the ground.
Still, many villagers have expressed cautious optimism.
“For years we have lived without leadership. At least now someone is speaking for us — and not just about ancestors, but about jobs, roads, and our future,” said an elder from Nzvere.
The Chinamhora chieftainship, which rotates among the Chinamaringa, Chidziva, and Nzvere houses, has long been seen as one of the most influential in Goromonzi. Its proximity to Harare places it under pressure from urban sprawl, land baronism, and demographic change. That context makes the task before Chief Chinamhora XVI not only spiritual, but deeply political and developmental.
His success, or failure , may well become a case study in how Zimbabwe’s traditional leaders either rise with the times, or retreat behind the veil of ceremony.
For now, Chief Chinamhora XVI has made his position clear. He is not here to merely wear the crown. He is here to use it.
