Bulawayo mayor Thaba Moyo yesterday expressed concern over delays in erecting the Joshua Nkomo statue, which the local authority wants completed before Heroes’ Day in August.
Council wants to use the unveiling of the statue to rename Main Street after the late nationalist. Moyo told NewsDay he was “feeling very bad” that “the erection of Nkomo’s statue had taken this long”. “As the Bulawayo City Council, we have done all the necessary steps towards renaming Main Street in honour of the late Joshua Nkomo,” he said.
“We are simply waiting for government’s approval. We made the resolution three years ago. “However, we would have loved that maybe this year, in fact we just pray that this year when we reach Heroes’ Day celebrations in August, the statue will have been put up.”
But Moyo said he was unsure if government would speed up the process.
“We are really not sure if government will be able to catch up with time and put up the statue before Heroes’ Day,” he said.
Home Affairs co-minister Kembo Mohadi said he could not give a time frame for the completion of the exercise.
“It is work in progress but I cannot give a time frame or specific dates,” he said.
“But we are working on it. Since the statue is there and the pedestal is there, when everything else is in order, we will put up the statue.”
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In March, Moyo said he hoped the statue would be erected before the commemoration of Nkomo’s death on July 1.
The Zapu leader, popularly known as Father Zimbabwe, died on July 1, 1999.
