UNCLE HARVEST: RESOLVE CONFLICTS DECISIVELY

The Nation of Wednesday 10 November 2021 has carried a story titled, “Boundary wrangle claims one.”

This is a story of an unidentified person who was killed in a fracas that erupted during an installation ceremony of a Group Village Headman.

A few years ago, a decision was taken to split TA Malili. This saw the coming into being of TA Mbwatalika.

There has been an ongoing disagreement between the two traditional authorities on the actual boundary of the two traditional areas.

What is then happening is that some villages in what is purported to be Traditional Authority Mbwatalika either retained their loyalty to Malili or villages split into two, one loyal to Malili and the other to Mbwatalika.

In some cases, some villages that had aligned with Mbwatalika changed back loyalties and re-aligned with Malili.

This is an outstanding wrangle that has persisted for some years now. Sometimes it has also taken on a political nature, with one TA seen to align with a particular party and the other TA aligned with the other.

On this particular day, it is said TA Malili was installing a Group Village Headman in an area that TA Mbwatalika claims to belong to her.

It is then alleged, that TA Mbwatalika organised over 50 gule wamkulu caricatures to go and disrupt the ceremony.

TA Malili got wind of this plot and his loyalist were ready for them. This led to the wrangle that resulted in death and several injuries.

It is further alleged that the gule wamkulu caricatures were promised two thousand kwacha each upon accomplishing the task. TA Mbwatalika denies the allegations.

The Nation article quotes the District Commissioner of Lilongwe, Lawford Palani calling upon the two TAs to preach peace to their subjects.

The District Commissioner must realize that the source of lack of peace in this area is actually the two chiefs. If the two of them were brought together, pointing of the real elephant in the room done( the elephant ii the room is the lack of clarity in the actual boundary between the two.

This issue must be confronted frankly and a resolution arrived at without any further delay.

The longer this boundary dispute persists the more complex it will become. It is a root cause of conflict that needs to be unrooted decisively.

The Ministry of Local Government, through the DC, can no longer dilly dally and wish the problem to disappear.

This must be done before many lives are lost, a lot of property destroyed, hatred widespread, and families split the way it is happening.

Procrastination in resolving conflicts deepens and complicates them. Some hard facts need to be faced, frank discussions held and resolute decisions made.