Residents of six different villages at Shanzha in the Nzhelele area, who have been without petty headmen for a long time,  sang and danced for joy at the weekend when new petty headmen were officially installed in their area.

The six petty headmen, who are tasked with the overseeing of the villages in the area, are Mr Johannes Mushiane, who will be in charge of Golori, educator Kenneth Magadani will oversee Lavhelesani, Mr Zacharia Neluheni will be in charge at Luheni, Mr Mpho Mabannda at Thaweni, Ranwedzi village will be under Mr Michael Savhasa, while Thondoni will be under the auspices of Mr Thomas Nange.

The function, which was attended by many community members and traditional leaders from around the Tshivhase territory, among them Chief Ramugondo and Mulindavhathu Randima, took place at the Shanzha royal palace on Saturday.

The installation was carried out by the local traditional leader, Chief Neckson Shavhani, who said it had become necessary to install petty headmen in the area. "Service delivery is very slow in this area. Besides having all our villages electrified, we still have a dire shortage of water, our access roads are very bad and even the road that leads to my palace here is not accessible. Installing these petty headmen will help speed up service delivery, and there will be development in this area," said Shavhani.

He said it was a way of decentralizing power, which would mean that they would be able to identify areas of need at grassroots level and report to him, which would mean good governance. "We need development here and this is a way to fast-track service delivery and development in our village.”

In installing the petty headmen, Shavhani implored them to treat all residents as equals and to work harmoniously in conjunction with all the structures in the village.