The Sunday News
LATE Vice-President Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo will this year receive more honour for his contribution to the liberation of the country, Sunday News can reveal.
The late VP, who has various areas named after him such as the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport, a road and a towering statue in Bulawayo, will receive more honours soon.
According to his daughter, Mrs Thandiwe Nkomo Ebrahim, a statue in honour of Dr Nkomo would be erected in Harare before the end of the year. The statue is a replica of the one in Bulawayo.
Although she declined to disclose the location, she said the statue would be placed in an area with “a number of glass buildings”. Part of the land where the statue will be erected, Mrs Nkomo Ebrahim said, was donated by the Harare City Council.
“We are going to have the same statue that is in Bulawayo erected in Harare. I am in the committee that is seeing the issue through. The difference will just be in the podium so that it reaches the high glass buildings that are surrounding it,” she added.
A new suburb is being constructed right at the heart of the leafy residential area of Burnside in Bulawayo, and will be named after Dr Nkomo.
“There is a huge piece of land that is here in Bulawayo, it is actually between two suburbs along Circular Drive. The council has accepted that it be called Mqabuko Heights after Dr Nkomo as per our request,” Mrs Nkomo Ebrahim said.
She said the land was sourced by her father and had been idle but they had started utilising it by developing the place into an upmarket residential area. Mrs Nkomo Ebrahim also revealed that the streets in that area would be named after Dr Nkomo, his family and children.
“The streets at Mqabuko Heights will be named after his brothers, sisters and us the family as it is a private project. It is a way to remember and honour him for the person he was,” she added.
Through various partners, Mrs Nkomo Ebrahim took over the Mqabuko Heights project after the death of her father to fulfill his wishes to develop the area and close to 1 000 stands have been sold so far.
The wife of the late visionary had also been honoured in her own capacity.
Mrs Nkomo Ebrahim said her mother Mrs Johanna “Mafuyana” Nkomo was honoured in Chegutu East Constituency.
“The Shamus (Cde Webster and his wife Constance) have named two schools in Selous after my mother. There is Mbuya Fuyana primary and secondary schools as well as Mbuya Fuyana Highway which is from the schools leading to the highway to Harare,” she said.
Another housing co-operative in Harare has also been named after MaFuyana.
The Nkomo family said they felt that the nation had recognised the work done by their parents and also showed appreciation for their work and they stood proud to be able to see this happening. Mrs Nkomo Ebrahim said if Zimbabwe could have just one more Joshua Nkomo, the country would be a better place if his ideals, principles and ethics were passed on to future generations.
She further said as a family they were now happy that Joshua Nkomo was now visible in the city of Bulawayo through various areas named after the late VP.
“New generations to come will be curious to see who this man was and what he did and the museum is one place that they will be able to find this,” she said.
However, she said history books at some point would have to be re-written and fit in the other aspects of Father Zimbabwe that were not known to the public, as what was there was limited and not a real reflection of who Dr Nkomo was.
“Some books do not have adequate information and have to be done comprehensively as to how things transpired during the struggle and when you read them they touch on the events of the struggle but not in-depth, children will one day want to know the steps of the struggle,” she said.
“Those born after independence do not know racism, they do not know segregation they just take life for granted and do not really know what others went through.”
