A former Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) ex-combatant has accused the Matobo Rural District Council of frustrating his efforts to construct a memorial site in honour of the late vice president Joshua Nkomo.
The ex-combatant, Linganiso Mdabuko Nyathi, said he has hit brick walls over the years at the local authority from the time he applied for a piece of land for the project 15 years ago.
Nyathi, the founding national chairperson of the Lalangwe Mbambangwe Memorial Trust, said he has given up on the council after he was allegedly denied land to construct the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo School of Tourism and Hospitality in the district.
He accused the local authority of belittling Nkomo’s contributions to the country before and after independence in 1980.
“It is the time we should give full respect to the late Father Zimbabwe also known as the Lion Africa during the liberation war,” Nyathi said.
“Nkomo’s revolutionary political and social legacy to the citizens of Zimbabwe and globally is still a powerful message and testimony to the people.
“As a ZPRA cadre and founder of the trust, I feel there is a need to set up a school of thought and an ideological platform facility to embrace internal and external diversity of all heroes without political affiliation.”
Nyathi said he has since applied to the Bulawayo City Council to allocate him a piece of land for his project.
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“I have since approached the Bulawayo City Council to seek for land and they advised me to identify the land and inform them once I see it,” he said.
“I recently identified two pieces of land, one at Entumbane, but the council said it was not suitable for the project.
“The other was at Tshabalala, but the council told me someone has applied to build a school on it.”
“I am happy that the Bulawayo is cooperating and is willing to assist. "Hopefully I will get the land and start the project.”
Matobo RDC CEO, Elvis Sibanda, however, accused Nyathi of misrepresenting facts.
“Council and the physical planning identified the area long back and after public consultations were made, there were some stakeholders who objected on their project site that it is within the world Heritage site,” Sibanda said.
“Those people were advised to choose a different one, but they remained adamant on their preferred site.
“If they are serious about the project surely by now they could have done something by identifying another land in consultation with the communities and the traditional leaders together with the council.”
Sibanda said the council cannot stop development.
The project was supposed to be constructed at Maphisa in Kezi.
Nkomo was the leader and founder of Zapu.
Nkomo is revered by many as a principled leader and one of the main players in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle against white minority rule in the 1970s.
He was regarded by many political analysts as the president that Zimbabwe never had.
In 1982, the late president Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF-led government launched the now infamous Gukurahundi war in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces resulting in Nkomo going into exile.
Over 20 000 civilians were left dead during the Gukurahundi massacres.
PF Zapu and Zanu later signed the 1987 unity agreement resulting in a unity government and paving way for Nkomo to be the vice president.
Nkomo died of prostate cancer on July 1, 1999 at the age of 82 at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare.
