THE government has blown US$1 million on three statues of the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo – but none of the statues are going on display anytime soon.
The Home Affairs Ministry was forced to shelve plans to erect two statues of the former nationalist leader in Bulawayo and Harare last week after his family rejected the bronze artwork as “small and pitiful”.
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi has revealed they commissioned a Zimbabwe-registered North Korean company, Mutsuddy International, to make the two bronze statues at a total cost of US$600,000. Mutsuddy is the same company which designed the bronze National Heroes Acre murals.
Mohadi said the two statues – each three metres tall – have been withdrawn for safe-keeping at the National Museum in Bulawayo.
It has now emerged that the government commissioned a THIRD statue before the Korea order, only to pull-out after realising the cost of the stone carving by sculptor David Mutasa would cost MORE.
Mohadi said: “We gave Mutasa a lot of money and he kept on asking for more.
“It later turned out that Mutasa’s statue was going to be more expensive than the North Koreans.”
New Zimbabwe.com understands Mutasa – who denies his statue was costing more – received in excess of US$200,000 for the statue which is three quarters complete. He claims his statue was APPROVED by Nkomo’s late widow, Joanna.
Together with costs of running the projects, the total bill to the government tops US$1 million.
The revelations expose for the first time the cost to the tax payer of a political tug-of-war over the legacy of Joshua Nkomo – the former leader of the revolutionary PF-ZAPU party.
His family says it is raising funds to commission its own statue which it wants erected at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo.
Rejected ... One of two statues of Nkomo rejected as "small and pitiful" by his family