By Paul Nyathi|The High Court has ordered the Ministry of Local Government to effect immediate disciplinary measures on Chiefs Council President Chief Fortune Charumbira for his utterances calling on all chiefs to facilitates votes for ZANU PF.

The court further ordered Charumbira to issue a retraction statement on his utterances within seven days.

Charumbira was dragged to the High Court by the Election Resource Centre (ERC) demanding for him to retract the statement.

Charumbira, the National Council of Chiefs and Local Government minister July Moyo were cited as the respondents.

Trust Maanda, who is ERC’s chairperson of the board of trustees, in his affidavit had said that Charumbira’s statements demanding chiefs to support Zanu PF were unlawful and unconstitutional.

“The respondent (Charumbira) has acted unlawfully and moreover has failed in his constitutional duty to respect and uphold the Constitution of Zimbabwe by staying nonpartisan and away from party politics, to respect the institution of traditional leadership and not bring the institution into disrepute and to not infringe the rights and fundamental freedoms of people,” read his court submission.

The court ordered Charumbira to retract the statements he made by publishing a counter statement in a newspaper with national circulation, on national radio and on national television.