BULAWAYO – President Robert Mugabe on Sunday officially unveiled the towering statue of the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo in the Bulawayo city centre. Main Street in the city was also renamed “Joshua Nkomo Street”.
As the country celebrated Unity Day, Mugabe also commissioned the newly rehabilitated Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport. Unity Day is the annual celebration of the Unity Accord signed between Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and Nkomo’s PF-ZAPU on December 22, 1987.
This deal put an end to the sad chapter that witnessed the Gukurahundi Massacres in which Mugabe’s crack troopers massacred an estimated 20 000 perceived Zapu supporters in the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces.
Prior to this, in a public statement, Mugabe had said, “ZAPU and its leader, Dr. Joshua Nkomo, are like a cobra in a house. The only way to deal effectively with a snake is to strike and destroy its head.”
On Sunday just before unveiling the statue, President Mugabe was singing a different tune and said the statue of Dr Nkomo told the story of Zimbabwe’s struggles and aspirations.
“The statue we are gathered here to officially unveil and the street we have renamed are the real story of Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans, our struggles and our aspirations as a people.
“That story is embodied in the person of Dr Nkomo. Both the statue and the renamed street commemorate and are a tribute to Dr Nkomo for his leadership, his dedication and his ability to translate the aspirations of Zimbabweans,” Mugabe said.
