News / Local
Joshua Nkomo's triple honour
19 Dec 2013 at 08:20hrs | Views
Stakeholders tasked with ensuring the accomplishment of three major projects in honour of the late veteran nationalist and former vice president Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo have expressed gratification at the work.
President Robert Mugabe will officially commission the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport; unveil the statue and the official renaming of the street transforming the thoroughfare from Main Street to Joshua Nkomo Street.
Delegates from the government, members of the Nkomo family, Bulawayo City Council, the Joshua Nkomo Foundation among other stakeholders were part of the team that made the final tour to the projects.
As part of the Unity Day commemorations, the nation will witness the greatest honour to be bestowed on Zapu founding president ever since his death a decade- and-a-half ago.
The bronze statue which was mounted on Sunday night is shielded from public view through black plastic covers. Inside the plastics, the statue, which depicts Nkomo in a suit holding his traditional walking stick on the right hand, is wrapped in a Zimbabwean flag.
The delegates also managed to identify a point where a placard with the new street name will be placed for unveiling.
The pedestal on which the statue is erected is four-and-half metres while the statue itself is three metres high making the total length of the structure seven-and-half metres tall.
The statue is situated at the intersection of Main Street and 8th Avenue, the exact place where the statue of Cecil John Rhodes was erected.
On top of the adjacent building that houses the Barclays bank that is where the Union Jack flag used to be raised in the Rhodesian era.
Nkomo's statue was erected in 2010 and pulled down before its official unveiling after Bulawayo residents and the Nkomo family complained that the dimensions of the initial pedestal did not capture the attributes of the late Father Zimbabwe in full.
Nkomo died on July 1, 1999 and was accorded national hero status.
The erection of his statue is in memory of his illustrious works and contributions to the liberation of the country and its development after independence.
President Robert Mugabe will officially commission the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport; unveil the statue and the official renaming of the street transforming the thoroughfare from Main Street to Joshua Nkomo Street.
Delegates from the government, members of the Nkomo family, Bulawayo City Council, the Joshua Nkomo Foundation among other stakeholders were part of the team that made the final tour to the projects.
As part of the Unity Day commemorations, the nation will witness the greatest honour to be bestowed on Zapu founding president ever since his death a decade- and-a-half ago.
The bronze statue which was mounted on Sunday night is shielded from public view through black plastic covers. Inside the plastics, the statue, which depicts Nkomo in a suit holding his traditional walking stick on the right hand, is wrapped in a Zimbabwean flag.
The delegates also managed to identify a point where a placard with the new street name will be placed for unveiling.
The statue is situated at the intersection of Main Street and 8th Avenue, the exact place where the statue of Cecil John Rhodes was erected.
On top of the adjacent building that houses the Barclays bank that is where the Union Jack flag used to be raised in the Rhodesian era.
Nkomo's statue was erected in 2010 and pulled down before its official unveiling after Bulawayo residents and the Nkomo family complained that the dimensions of the initial pedestal did not capture the attributes of the late Father Zimbabwe in full.
Nkomo died on July 1, 1999 and was accorded national hero status.
The erection of his statue is in memory of his illustrious works and contributions to the liberation of the country and its development after independence.
Source - dailynews
