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July 2010 Vol 19, National News

Nkomo's people livid over North Korea made statue

By Radio VOP   Thu, Jul 29, 2010

BULAWAYO, - A showdown is looming between the government and Bulawayo political activists following revelations that the statue of the late Vice President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, soon to be erected in the city was made in the Democratic Republic of Korea(DPRK).

BULAWAYO, - A showdown is looming between the government and Bulawayo political activists following revelations that the statue of the late Vice President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, soon to be erected in the city was made in the Democratic Republic of Korea(DPRK).

The DPRK was responsible for training and arming the notorious fifth brigade “Gukurahundi”  which was responsible for the massacre of thousands of civilians in the Matebeleland and Midlands regions in the early eighties .

A worker at the construction site at the intersection of Main Street and 8th avenue told Radio VOP that the three-metre tall bronze statue was made in the DPRK.
“The statue will be mounted on a 1, 2 metre long pedestal. As we speak, the statue is already in Harare and we are expecting the department of the national Museums and National monuments to bring the statue to Bulawayo very soon so that it can be mounted,” said the worker.
Methuseli Moyo, the ZAPU Director of Information and Communication said it is not befitting for the DPRK to make a statue of the late father Zimbabwe.
“Honestly this is a mockery for the late Vice President. In Zimbabwe we have some of the best artists in the world and we wonder why and how the Koreans were chosen to make the statue of Father Zimbabwe.
"After all the Koreans were partly responsible for the killing of our people here. This is unacceptable and an insult to the people of Matabeleland and the Midlands,” said Moyo.
Zwidekalanga Khumalo, the Director of Mthwakazi heritage, a local pressure group said it would have been good, if the statue was made by the locals rather than the Koreans.

“Its like the Koreans are celebrating what they did to the people who were led by the late Vice President. The idea of honouring the veteran nationalists is good but we are against the idea of contracting the Koreans who were partly responsible for the murdering of people from this region,” he said.
Thandiwe Nkomo, the first daughter of the late nationalist said she appreciates the people’s anger over the issue.
“As a family we have debated this issue and concluded that there is nothing we can do since the Koreans have already made the statue. Over the past years there has been a lot of debate over the issue,” said Thandiwe.
The Nkomo family and the government are also bickering over the erection of a similar statue at Karigamombe centre in Harare . The family argues that the location of Karigamombe (one who takes and fells the bull by its horns) tarnishes all the good work that was put towards this project by a lot of people.
The family said it was an honour gone wrong and given in bad faith.

“It has turned this whole event into a mockery and an insult not only to Dr Nkomo's family but to the whole nation, particularly people of Matabeleland and the former PF ZAPU supporters and all those who believed in what the late Father Zimbabwe stood for,” the family said in a statement.

“The late Dr Joshua Nkomo’s contribution to the course of history of our country as we know it today was immense. He is amongst those people that can easily be distinguished and credited with the independence of our country, the unity and peace that each and every one of us enjoys in this country today.”

The family said the location was not appropriate for Dr Nkomo’s statue.

“For that, we can unequivocally say that this nation owes him this particular honour and many more. However, there are more appropriate locations than this very controversial site.

Our late father was persecuted, humiliated and insulted in his lifetime and there are obviously people who still have a burning desire to continue persecuting him in his afterlife. This is just an additional indignity in the tortured life of our late father and in the painful and awkward history of a people.”

“To those men and women who gathered in all their God given wisdom and came up with the decision to locate the Harare Statue at Karigamombe Centre, we say to them “shame on you all for scheming to turn what should be an honour into a very painful event for a lot of people around the country”.

Dr Nkomo played the “bull” in Zimbabwe‘s early 80s politics while President Robert Mugabe played “ the bull feller”

By Radio VOP

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