TODAY marks the 14th anniversary of late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo’s death. A number of events have been lined up by Zanu PF and his family to celebrate the life of this larger-than-life liberation icon.
SOUTHERN EYE EDITORIAL.
For the first time, Zanu PF is doing something meaningful to recognise the role played by the liberation luminary whom many believe died a bitter man because of the betrayal by his fellow nationalists.
Zanu PF has lined up activities including exhibitions, lectures and entertainment by cultural groups that are set to stretch the whole week “to commemorate the life of the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo”. The move by Zanu PF, though very noble, has been criticised in several circles because it comes at a time when the country is gearing for crucial elections.
There is discontent especially in Matabeleland and the Midlands that Zanu PF-led governments have neglected Nkomo’s legacy deliberately. In the past, the only notable activities that were conducted to commemorate Father Zimbawe’s life were partisan Zanu PF music galas that fizzled out with time because they were never meant for all Zimbabweans. Several projects including Ekusileni Hospital, the Joshua Mqabuko International Airport and statues that were meant for Harare and Bulawayo in honour of Nkomo, have not been completed a decade after he died. External organisations such as the African Union (AU) have done more to show their appreciation for Nkomo’s role in liberating Africa than our own government.
The AU honoured Nkomo alongside other African liberation luminaries during the continental body’s 50th anniversary celebrations held in Ethiopia in May. Frustrated by the government’s apparent lack of interest, Nkomo’s son Sibangilizwe has organised what is expected to be a high-profile event to commemorate the death of his father at Stanley Square today.
Sibangilizwe wants to go a step further and declare July 1 the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and Liberators Day. He says he will make a unilateral declaration because government officials have over the years ignored his pleas to declare the day a national holiday.
It should be an embarrassment to President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF that things are turning out this way. Mugabe is the only one with the authority to declare a national holiday yet he has remained quiet about the requests from the Nkomo family. If the government truly appreciated the role played by Nkomo, the commemorations must have been a national event presided over by Mugabe himself.
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Surely Nkomo must be turning in his grave in anger, seeing how his name is being trivialised.
