CONTROVERSY surrounding the statue of the late Vice-President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo is far from over with outspoken Hurungwe West MP and Zanu PF Mashonaland West chairperson Temba Mliswa wading into the issue saying it was unpatriotic for the project to have been awarded to North Korean sculptors.
NQOBILE BHEBHE CHIEF REPORTER
Mliswa said the use of North Korean sculptors in making the three-metre bronze statue promoted the reclusive State’s businesses at the expense of local ones.
The statue was erected at the centre of the intersection of JM Nkomo Street and 8th Avenue in Bulawayo and was officially unveiled by President Robert Mugabe on Unity Day, December 22 2013.
According to the latest issue of the Hansard — a parliamentary publication — Mliswa said it was “sad” that locals were overlooked for the project.
He said this while contributing to the motion “Deteriorating state of corporate governance in Zimbabwe” in the august House on Tuesday.
“It is on a sad note that the statue of our late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, which is in Bulawayo right now, was made through a tender.
“That tender was won by a Zimbabwean David G Mutasa, but it was then given to the Koreans to do that sculpture.”
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“How sad is it that a Zimbabwean wins a tender to actually do a sculpture of ubaba wethu Joshua Nkomo, but we still allow the North Koreans to go and do the sculpture for us,” said Mliswa.
Bulawayo-based civic society groups protested at the initial erection of the statue in 2010 after it emerged that it had been built by North Koreans.
North Korea-trained members of the notorious 5 Brigade were accused of killing more than 20 000 civilians in Matabeleland and some parts of the Midlands during the Gukurahundi era in the early 1980s. These were mostly Nkomo’s supporters.
Mliswa said he hoped the planned Harare statue would be built by locals only.
“Even on issues of patriotism at the end of the day, we have our own Zimbabweans who are able,” he said.
“We should promote our own culture and we should promote our own arts, but we are supporting the arts of the North Koreans at the end of the day.
“It is very sad. I was given all the documents leading to all that.
“It is very sad that, Ubaba Wethu’s sculpture was made by the North Koreans yet there are Zimbabweans who won the tender and who could have done that.
“I am hoping that the one that will be in Harare will be done by the Zimbabweans and not by the North Koreans.”
Nkomo’s statue in Harare was initially set to be mounted at Karigamombe Building at the corner of Samora Machel Avenue and Leopold Takawira Street in the central business district, but reservations were raised over the site until the issue spilled into the High Court, which halted the erection of the statue at the centre.
