News / Local
Mnangagwa to build Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo statues
11 Jul 2023 at 18:25hrs | Views
As the rationale and raison d'etre for the November 2017 military coup continues to collapse, with their masks falling irretrievably amid a loss of legitimacy and credibility, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government will build a statue for the late former president Robert Mugabe - whom they ousted in the pustch - at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare.
The airport was named after Mugabe just before the coup.
The new honour represents the immortalisation of Mugabe and remembrance of his regime's rule.
This will spark new controversy as Mugabe ruled the country with an iron fist and destroy the nation, while impoverishing the people.
He also committed grave human rights abuses, including genocide.
While aesthetic commemoration of leaders and iconic personalities has been there for centuries, it is sometimes controversial when it involves some divisive figures like Mugabe.
Statues in particular have been used as a befitting honour for commemoration of political leaders and other luminaries in different fields of human endeavour.
The premise upon which statues are basically constructed is that their subjects undertook in their lifetimes concrete actions, heroics and feats which significantly impacted upon the lives of others.
As a result, the Mugabe statue will shatter the premise and syllogism of the coup which they presented as a redemptive political action to save the nation from his failures and threat to the legacy of the liberation.
The coup - which was code-named Operation Restore Legacy - was explained as an intervention to remove "criminals around the President".
Now the smokescreen has been shattered.
Yet it was clear from the beginning to discerning Zimbabweans that it was about serving personal and political interests of its plotters.
Their interests included political self-preservation, keeping their jobs and top positions, as well as the trappings of office, access to state resources and massive self-aggrandisement.
Besides Mugabe's, a statue will also be built for Zimbabwe's founding nationalist leader Joshua at the roundabout, corner Joshua Nkomo Road (Airport Road) and Glenara Avenue in Harare.
Nkomo was badly hounded and persecuted by Mugabe's regime after the country independence in 1980 amid a fierce power struggle and battle for political supremacy, as Zanu-PF pushed for a one-party state.
Former Zapu leaders and Zipra commanders were arrested and tortured, while Nkomo was pushed into exile.
Mugabe unleashed Gukurahundi as the political battle intensified using the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, killing about 20 000 innocent civilians in the process.
Government will also built statues for other nationalist figures such the famous Dr Tichafa Samuel Parirenyatwa who was Zapu Vice-President and the first African (black) doctor in then Rhodesia.
The Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare is named after him.
Parirenyatwa was assassinated on 14 August 1962 aged 35, while on his way to a Zapu congress.
Parirenyatwa was the father of former Zanu-PF minister David Parirenyatwa, and grandfather to prominent media personality Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa.
The airport was named after Mugabe just before the coup.
The new honour represents the immortalisation of Mugabe and remembrance of his regime's rule.
This will spark new controversy as Mugabe ruled the country with an iron fist and destroy the nation, while impoverishing the people.
He also committed grave human rights abuses, including genocide.
While aesthetic commemoration of leaders and iconic personalities has been there for centuries, it is sometimes controversial when it involves some divisive figures like Mugabe.
Statues in particular have been used as a befitting honour for commemoration of political leaders and other luminaries in different fields of human endeavour.
The premise upon which statues are basically constructed is that their subjects undertook in their lifetimes concrete actions, heroics and feats which significantly impacted upon the lives of others.
As a result, the Mugabe statue will shatter the premise and syllogism of the coup which they presented as a redemptive political action to save the nation from his failures and threat to the legacy of the liberation.
The coup - which was code-named Operation Restore Legacy - was explained as an intervention to remove "criminals around the President".
Now the smokescreen has been shattered.
Yet it was clear from the beginning to discerning Zimbabweans that it was about serving personal and political interests of its plotters.
Their interests included political self-preservation, keeping their jobs and top positions, as well as the trappings of office, access to state resources and massive self-aggrandisement.
Besides Mugabe's, a statue will also be built for Zimbabwe's founding nationalist leader Joshua at the roundabout, corner Joshua Nkomo Road (Airport Road) and Glenara Avenue in Harare.
Nkomo was badly hounded and persecuted by Mugabe's regime after the country independence in 1980 amid a fierce power struggle and battle for political supremacy, as Zanu-PF pushed for a one-party state.
Former Zapu leaders and Zipra commanders were arrested and tortured, while Nkomo was pushed into exile.
Mugabe unleashed Gukurahundi as the political battle intensified using the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, killing about 20 000 innocent civilians in the process.
Government will also built statues for other nationalist figures such the famous Dr Tichafa Samuel Parirenyatwa who was Zapu Vice-President and the first African (black) doctor in then Rhodesia.
The Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare is named after him.
Parirenyatwa was assassinated on 14 August 1962 aged 35, while on his way to a Zapu congress.
Parirenyatwa was the father of former Zanu-PF minister David Parirenyatwa, and grandfather to prominent media personality Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa.
Source - newshawks
