Over seventy village heads from Mhondoro have complained that they are living in abject poverty, with most of them incapacitated to the extent of compromising traditional disputes (both civil and criminal matters) judgments in favor of rich offenders to get bribes in a bid to evade possible arrest.

In a series of interviews with village heads in Chingwere area under Chief Chivero, village heads explained that they are resorting to bribes from subjects to earn a living.

"We have several subjects who have relatives and children abroad and have proven to be well-resourced. Those rich families always support us during these difficult times and due to poverty, we are forced even to pass judgments in a manner that does not offend them," one of the village heads said.

"We are left with no option especially when sitting for a trial involving rich subjects, we are afraid of biting the hand that is supposed to feed us. In such a process, we compromise judgments to favour those who pay us more," he added.

When interrogated if they are given the option to choose between taking bribes over ethical and moral standing when discharging their local governance duties, another village head queried that he gives priority to his welfare rather than anything that does not determine his economic destiny.

"My brother, it has been long since we suffered. We are not paid by the responsible authorities and it has been long when the authorities give false promises in terms of catering for our welfare," the village head said.

"I consider my welfare as the first preference when discharging my duties than adhering to ethical conduct, you die poor. We have now embarked on extorting some of our subjects before handing over disputes to chiefs," he added.

"Imagine that out of ninety (90) village heads in Chingwere under Chief Chivero, only twenty-three (23) are on payroll by the Local Government Ministry, but the rest are getting nothing. So we should devise our own means to make ends meet, we are in a jungle and do not need to pay attention to ethical conduct too much," he said.

Source - Byo24News