GWERU - Co-Home Affairs Minister and Zanu (PF) official Kembo Mohadi The statues were erected in Bulawayo and at Karigamombe Centre in Harare before being pulled down after an outcry by the public and the Nkomo family. The infamous Karigamombe Centre was constructed during the Gukurahundi era and commissioned by President Mugabe in 1987, a month before the signing of the Unity Accord.
Karigamombe means the one who kills the bull. Nkomo is Ndebele for cow or bull and the party led by Nkomo before the Unity Accord used a charging bull as its symbol. The one in Bulawayo was pulled down because it bore little resemblance to the late Nkomo, and had been made in North Korea, the country which trained the Fifth Brigade responsible for atrocities in Matabeleland.
Mohadi told journalists on the sidelines of the national commemorations of International Monuments Day in Gweru that the two controversial statues would be re-erected unchanged at the previous points, claiming agreement with the Nkomo family. But Sibangilizwe, Nkomo family’s eldest son, has denied that.
“The only improvement that we will make on the statue to be erected in Bulawayo will be to increase the height of the pedestal on which it will stand, no other changes have been made,” Mohadi said. Pressure groups in Bulawayo have already started openly criticizing the intended move and promising to oppose it by all means. Analysts who spoke to The Zimbabwean said the development showed how Zanu (PF) had internalized a culture of disregarding wishes of the majority people the party claims to lead.
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