The Sunday News
Tinomuda Chakanyuka, Senior Reporter
MDC Alliance president Mr Nelson Chamisa has been exposed as a serial liar after it emerged that claims he made at the party’s rally in Bulawayo that he was the only “national” leader to have visited the Joshua Nkomo Museum were false and baseless.
Mr Chamisa told party supporters at White City Stadium that Dr Joshua Nkomo’s family had told him that he was the first “national leader” to have visited the museum in Matsheumhlophe since the former Vice-President’s death.
The MDC-T leader also claimed he had been offered the late Vice President’s intonga (sceptre) by the veteran nationalist’s family.
“I was so touched when I went to Dr Nkomo’s Matsheumhlophe house. I was going there to see the history of this nation. The family (Dr Nkomo’s) told me one thing, they said ever since the death of Dr Nkomo, I am the first national leader to visit the house, they even offered to give me Dr Nkomo’s traditional sceptre (intonga),’’ Adv Chamisa claimed.
Sunday News last week gathered that several national leaders among them former Zambian President Dr Kenneth Kaunda, Dr Nkomo’s successor Cde Joseph Msika and Cde John Landa Nkomo also visited the museum. The museum was completed in 2007 and opened to the public in 2012.
Joshua Nkomo Cultural Movement (JNCM) national director Mr Mehluli Moyo dismissed Mr Chamisa’s claims as untrue and confirmed that a number of high profile politicians had visited the place before the MDC-T leader.
Other notable and prominent personalities listed by Mr Moyo that have visited the museum and appended their signatures in the visitors’ book also include Zapu leader Dr Dumiso Dabengwa and Minister of Energy and Power Development Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo.
“It’s untrue (that Chamisa is the first ‘national leader’ to visit the museum). Several prominent people, including ministers, have visited the museum,” said Mr Moyo.
Mr Chamisa’s other claim that he was offered Dr Nkomo’s sceptre (intonga) was also dismissed as unfounded. After the claim was dismissed as abominable falsehoods by Dr Nkomo’s family, the MDC-T leader seemed to desperately hinge his claims on his conversation with Mr Jabulani Hadebe, who took him on a tour of the facility.
However, Mr Hadebe who is the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo National Foundation chief executive director last week dismissed Mr Chamisa’s claims describing them as a “political joke”. He told Sunday News that at no point was the MDC-T leader offered the revolutionary icon’s scepter.
“I didn’t offer him (the sceptre). What he said at the rally was probably a joke, a political joke. I guess he said it in jest,” said Mr Hadebe.
“He came to visit, like any other person. The place is open for members of the public to visit. Our tour guides took him around the museum and explained to him the myth around Dr Nkomo’s sceptre,” he added.
Mr Chamisa last week tried in vain to dismiss reports on his false claims, claiming that his statements were distorted.
“I also noted that there have been outright distortions, lies and spin around my visit to the Joshua Nkomo museum and my meeting with Jabulani. Yet lies have temporary legs and the truth shall be revealed in the fullness of time,” he said.
This is not the first time that Mr Chamisa has made claims that were later proved to be untrue. Mr Chamisa, in February this year, claimed that the United States of America President, Mr Donald Trump, had promised a whooping $15 billion bailout, in the event that the Alliance wins the forthcoming election. The United States government distanced itself from the claims. Again, Mr Chamisa claimed that he was misquoted.-@irielyan
