By News Editor, Barotseland Post
In an unexpected twist of events, two Princes have been fined two cows each for considering the abdication of Imwiko II, the current Litunga, King of Barotseland.
The Princes, who caused their own fate in the Limulunga Royal Capital after they revealed that their organization, Barotse Development Think Tank, had considered to campaign for the abdication of the King, were made to pledge to pay their respective fines by 31st October 2020.
While addressing the Saa-Siikalo Kuta, Barotseland’s Supreme Court, last month, the duo confessed that they planned to demand that His Majesty, Litunga Imwiko II abdicates because they believed, through some media reports, that His Majesty and the Barotse Royal Establishment were unwilling or had neglected to implement the 2012 Barotse National Council’s unanimous resolutions for Barotseland Independence.
The duo, however, must now pay two cows each for their error which the Kuta considered treasonous, failure to which they would face stiffer punishment.
The fine was arrived at after the two erring Princes had pleaded for lenience, stating that they did not actually plan to overthrow the King but rather merely considered to appeal to His Majesty to voluntarily abdicate so that another King, who would be more willing to implement the 2012 Barotseland independence resolutions, could take over.
And in fining the erring Princes, the BRE’s Induna Imandi has stated that the two were being fined following their own statements in the Saa-Siikalo, which was presided over by the Rt Hon Ngambela, where they confessed that their organization had been considering the abdication of the Litunga of Barotseland as purportedly demanded by the general membership of their grouping.
Consequently, the two Princes were each made to sign a pledge that the imposed respective fines would be settled by 31st October 2020, failure to which a worse punishment would be meted out to them.
Meanwhile, the Ngambela, Barotseland’s Prime Minister, Manyando Mukela, has admonished the duo, and the nation through them, not to listen to every social media report without validation.
The Premier’s admonishment came after the two claimed that the Litunga (King) and the Ngambela (Prime Minister) and his Kuta (court) were the ones objecting to Barotseland independence even after the president of Zambia and his Government were ready to grant independence to Barotseland through a negotiated Dialogue.
The duo claimed that the Litunga had rejected Barotseland independence after being bribed by the Zambian Government because he was not concerned with the welfare of the people of Barotseland.
This they said was according to an article which went viral on social media under the title, “Blame your Litunga and BRE, not us – Lungu tells the Lozis” which first appeared on 26th October last year 2019 in some sections of the Barotse social media.
In the said social media posting, Zambia’s President, Edgar Lungu, had allegedly told a group of Lozi elders to blame the Litunga and his Kuta who had failed to implement a dialogue process through which the President and the government would be willing to give independence to the contested territory.
This, the viral post had further suggested, was despite the Zambian government already giving the King and this Kuta huge sums of money required for the dialogue process.
However, the Ngambela stated categorically that the article in question actually lacked any merit as it was a mere fabrication by some irresponsible people on Facebook.
Princes Mwanza Kaluwe and Lubosi Litooma Mushala, in their respective capacities as Chairman and Deputy National Secretary of the Barotse Development Think Tank (BDTT), met their fate when they, on Tuesday 22nd September 2020, visited the Saa-Siikalo Kuta to, among other things, seek education on why little had been achieved on the implementation of the BNC resolutions, and how best to implement them and achieve independence of the Kingdom from Zambia.
It is customary for the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) to impose proportionate fines to any erring Barotse national, which is a more preferable course of action than handing erring members of the Barotse community to the Zambian Police where they often face unjust treatment.