Nkomo statue uncertain

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THE government has no clue when the statue of the late Vice-President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo would be erected

THE government has no clue when the statue of the late Vice-President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo would be erected and has surrendered everything into the hands of the contractor. RICHARD MUPONDE SENIOR REPORTER

Home Affairs deputy minister Ziyambi Ziyambi revealed this in the Senate on Thursday while responding to a question by Gwanda senator Alma Baloyi-Mkhwebu who wanted to know when the statue under moulding would be mounted in Bulawayo.

Ziyambi responded: “Today (Thursday), we discussed this issue with minister Mohadi (Kembo). We were speaking to the people who are moulding this statue.

“They told us that they were still in the process of constructing it.

“We have sent out some people to make a follow-up on the production of this statue because we heard that by the end of the year, the construction of this statue should be completed.

“This all depends on the people who are constructing this statue. We will be looking at the problems they are facing so that they could be rectified for the statue to be completed on time.”

Ziyambi’s revelations were contradictory to reports that the erection of the statue at the intersection of 8th Avenue and Main Street in Bulawayo would be completed in two weeks.

One statue was first set up in 2010, but was removed under the cover of darkness when the Nkomo family, pressure groups and residents of Bulawayo complained that it was too small and did not befit the magnanimity of the late Vice-President.

The removed statue is being kept at the Bulawayo History Museum.

The controversial statue was designed by the North Koreans, known for their role in the Gukurahundi genocide. North Korea trained the 5 Brigade which was responsible for the massacre of about 20 000 people from Matabeleland and some parts of the Midlands in the 1980s.