Mugabe Taunts Ndebele Tribe With Statue Of Joshua Nkomo

Apart from the underlying deep racism that lives within ZANU PF, there is another problem that is probably bigger than we realise. Tribalism.

The Shona people do not like the Ndebele people, and this is now beginning to show through with the intended unveiling of a statute of Joshua Nkomo in Bulawayo...

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"War veterans in Bulawayo have threatened to uproot the controversial statue of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo unless the government clarifies allegation that some of the material used to construct the statue was sourced from North Korea, trainers of the Fifth Brigade which killed at least 20000 of Nkomo's supporters during the Gukurahundi massacres between 1982 and 1988.

The latest flare up over the statue follows inconfirmed reports that last week co-Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said that some material used in constructing the statue was sourced in North Korea.

The Bulawayo statue of the former Vice-President, located on Main Street, is still covered in a black cloth despite its long-delayed unveiling amid reports that only President Robert Mugabe could do it."

No doubt the unveiling will be accompanied by a Mugabe speech which will lay into the West - but will not say a word by way of apology to the Matabele people for the 'moment of madness' that saw between twenty and thirty thousand people died at the hands of the Fifth Brigade.

Mugabe will never apologise - because, if he daoes, then he would have to pay the price of those bloody and vicious deaths.

"Zimbabwe Liberators Peace Initiative leader Maxwell Mnkandla told The Daily News that the statue cannot be welcome into the city as long as it has links to North Korea.

"We cannot have that because we will remember our loved ones who were killed through North Korean help everytime we see it. There should be no surprises if people uproot or even dynamite it," he said.

Morrison Dube, a member of the Zimbabwe People Revolutionary Army Veteran Association said the city would be better off without a statue of Father Zimbabwe than accept a mockery of his works and the ideals he stood for.

"They should pull that statue down if there is anything North Korean about it because we will do it for them very soon if they don't. That ZANU PF continues to mock Nkomo in his death speaks volumes of the contempt they harbour towards him, even in death," Dube said."

Mugabe is very good at rubbing salt into the wounds of the people of Zimbabwe, and he holds special treatment for the Matabele people with this statue. Instead of offering the statue as an attempt at placating the people of the South of Zimbabwe, he happily reminds them of the days of the Gukurahundi - and he intend to keep the unspoken threat alive in their minds.

I have always held Matabeleland close to my heart and just love the province. Whilst I am aware that I will perhaps never again visit the area, I can dream...

From "Without Honour": "I fell in love with the huge, wide streets, originally designed to be wide enough to turn a full span of oxen about, probably just after the turn of the 20th century. I loved the heat in Matabeleland, but most of all I found the Ndebele people an absolute joy. Huge, smiling people with a love for other people I had never witnessed or seen before.

I believed to myself that they were gentle giants."

"Kembo Mohadi told The Daily News that anyone who harbours plans of desecrating or otherwise interfering with the Nkomo statue faces arrest and prosecution in terms of the National Museums and Monuments Act."

Why is it, that ZANU PF have to have an underlying threat with everything they do?

"The statue has been under round-the-clock police guard since it was put up more than a week ago. It is covered in a black cloth which has angered Ndebele traditionalists who say it should not have been used on the statue because a black robe is symbolic of mourning in the local culture."

Robb WJ Ellis

The Bearded Man