By Correspondent
For 20 years, Chief Fortune Charumbira was the cavalier traditional leader who trampled on anything and survived.
Until he faced off with another traditional leader with a similar approach.
His fall was engineered.
On 13 October 2025, Local Government Permanent Secretary Tafadzwa Muguti stood before all Provincial Chiefs Assemblies in Harare and announced what many thought impossible:
President Emmerson Mnangagwa had approved the recall of Chief Charumbira from the Senate.
42 out of 45 Masvingo chiefs had voted to axe their own leader on 14 September.
Together with him: Chief Nhema (Rangarirai Bwawanda) of Zaka and Chief Chitanga (Feleni Chauke) of Mwenezi.
Behind that 42-3 vote was Temba Mliswa.
The chief progenitor of the scheme that toppled him, Mliswa has made himself leader of all Village Heads under the Zimbabwe Village Heads Association (ZIVHA).
He accuses Charumbira of “fighting the President.”
“For me anyone who fights the President is game.
“Once you start fighting the President you have also started fighting me and every traditional leader in the country,” Mliswa said.
Mliswa says Charumbira clandestinely resisted Constitutional Amendment Act No 3 gazetted early this year.
It scrapped direct Presidential election and extended Parliament to 2030.
The Charumbira camp claims it was Mliswa who mobilised the chiefs, gave them an agenda and financed the operation to the tune of US$10,000.
Mliswa denies using money, but admits to the broader agenda.
“Charumbira had made the whole Chief’s organisation a personal thing.
“He routinely undermined Chiefs who legitimately won elections and installed his allies.
“There were many legitimate issues for which he should be removed there was no need to bribe anyone,” he said.
For Charumbira, it was the end of a 20-year run of surviving scandals that would have ended any other leader.
The PAP Red Flag
As President of the Pan-African Parliament in Midrand, he was accused of presiding over a financial free-for-all.
A 2023 audit flagged over US$4.5 million in irregular per diems, double allowances and procurement without procedure.
Staff revolted and West African members moved a vote of no confidence.
He still completed his term and was conferred the African Royal Award for “leadership, statesmanship and outstanding contribution.”
The Family Scandal – 2023
In March 2023, he was charged with sexual assault in Masvingo.
According to the docket, he was accused of sexually assaulting his 27-year-old niece on two occasions.
He is alleged to have invited her to a suite at a luxury hotel in Harare, where he put his hands under her dress, touched her breasts and kissed her without her consent.
On 2 April, after requesting a meeting to discuss the incident, he is alleged to have put his hand between her legs and touched her genitals, while demanding that she kiss him.
In a 16-minute recording on the complainant’s phone, Charumbira is heard to say:
“I see more value and benefit in you and we being linked somehow, being friends, being very close friends, private, very close friends … just a kiss with me.”
Later he says: “Kiss me to motivate me.”
“There is no element of truth in those allegations,” he told NewsDay.
He refused to step down as PAP President while under investigation.
The Council of Chiefs called it a “private matter.”
He survived.
The Partisan Chief
Section 281 of the Constitution says chiefs must not be partisan.
However Charumbira wore ZANU PF regalia to chiefs meetings, campaigned for Mnangagwa in 2018 and 2023, and declared “all chiefs are ZANU PF.”
EU and SADC observers named him specifically. Court cases were filed but nothing of significance happened.
He survived.
The Gold Grab
His latest scandal involved gold.
He is accused of telling villagers in Charumbira to formalise their mining claims, only for the claims to be transferred to entities linked to him before they could register.
Villagers protested and a report went to the Ministry of Mines.
Up to now nothing has yet happened.
The Fall
After all the audits, the scandals, the court cases, it took a Sabhuku and 42 of his own subjects to finally end him.
He survived the PAP, he survived the courts, he survived the scandals.
But he finally ran out of lives to spawn from.
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