Chief Fortune Charumbira has been accused of registering a mining claim covering a gold-rich area in Bondolfi, Masvingo, shortly after advising villagers already prospecting there to formalise their operations.
According to a report by ZimLive, Charumbira convened a meeting with the artisanal miners on July 16, 2026, and encouraged them to legalise their activities.
A week later, he allegedly registered a claim covering the entire gold-rush area and began evicting the villagers. The affected miners are reportedly bitter, believing the traditional leader used information gathered during the meeting to take control of the resource.
Charumbira had not publicly responded to the allegations at the time of publication.
The Bondolfi allegations have emerged days after Charumbira suffered a major revolt among fellow traditional leaders in Masvingo province.
On September 14, the Masvingo Provincial Assembly of Chiefs voted overwhelmingly to recommend his recall from the Senate. Forty-two of the 45 chiefs who participated supported the motion, while three opposed it.
Chief Chitanga, born Feleni Chauke, and Chief Bota, born Christopher Mudhe, were also targeted by the recall vote.
– Advertisement –
No official reasons were initially provided for the decision. However, the extraordinary scale of the vote suggested that Charumbira had lost considerable support among traditional leaders in his home province.
The recommendation must pass through the relevant traditional-leadership procedures before any Senate seat is formally lost.
Charumbira previously led the National Council of Chiefs and later became its deputy president. His position among Zimbabwe’s most influential traditional leaders also secured him a seat in the Senate.
Defied court order over Zanu PF support
Charumbira has faced sustained criticism for openly aligning traditional leaders with Zanu PF despite constitutional provisions requiring chiefs to remain politically impartial.
Ahead of the 2018 elections, he publicly declared that chiefs and their subjects would support the ruling party and then-president Robert Mugabe.
The Election Resource Centre challenged his statements in the High Court, arguing that they violated Section 281 of the Constitution, which prohibits traditional leaders from joining or acting in the interests of political parties.
The court ordered Charumbira to retract his remarks and refrain from making partisan political declarations.
He was subsequently accused of defying the order after repeating that traditional leaders would continue supporting Zanu PF. In December 2018, he reportedly said chiefs were prepared to return to court rather than abandon the ruling party.
Charumbira again attracted criticism at Zanu PF’s 2021 annual conference after publicly pledging the chiefs’ continued allegiance to the party.
Civil-society organisations accused him of contempt of court and argued that his conduct undermined the constitutional neutrality expected of traditional authorities.
Sexual-assault allegations denied
In 2023, Charumbira faced separate allegations of indecent assault involving a 27-year-old woman described in reports as his niece.
The complainant reported the matter to police in Masvingo, accusing him of making unwanted sexual advances and touching her without consent during encounters in Harare.
Charumbira denied the allegations and alleged that the complaint had been fabricated as part of a family and chieftainship dispute involving people linked to the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change.
He threatened legal action against his accuser and resisted demands that he step aside from his position as president of the Pan-African Parliament while the matter was being investigated.
The allegations generated regional attention because Charumbira was leading one of the African Union’s most prominent institutions. No conviction arising from the accusations has been publicly reported.
Tenure at Pan-African Parliament
Charumbira was elected president of the Pan-African Parliament in June 2022 after a prolonged institutional crisis over the rotation of its leadership among Africa’s regions.
He returned to the position in March 2024 after being re-elected during an extraordinary session.
His continental role elevated his political profile, but critics continued questioning whether his openly partisan conduct in Zimbabwe was compatible with leading an institution intended to represent citizens across Africa.
His tenure ended in April 2026, when Algerian parliamentarian Fateh Boutbig was elected to lead the institution.
The latest allegations in Bondolfi now place Charumbira at the centre of another dispute involving traditional authority, control of natural resources and the treatment of rural communities.
For the affected villagers, the central question is how a meeting they believed was intended to help them formalise their operations allegedly resulted in one powerful figure controlling the entire gold-rich area.
Source: Charumbira accused of grabbing Bondolfi gold claims – Nehanda Radio
The post Charumbira accused of grabbing Bondolfi gold claims appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.