Nkomo new Speaker of Parliament

Nkomo new Speaker of Parliament

JOHN Nkomo

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By Staff Reporter

THE ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) national chairman John Nkomo was on Tuesday elected speaker of parliament.

The election was done after the swearing-in ceremony of 120 members of parliament elected in a parliamentary poll two weeks ago.

Thirty non-constituency parliamentarians were also sworn in on Tuesday.

Former deputy speaker Edna Madzongwe was reelected.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change did not follow through a threat to boycott Parliament.

The ZANU-PF national political commissar, Eliot Manyika nominated Nkomo to the position of speaker and party secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa seconded him.

Supporting his nomination, Manyika said Nkomo was one of Zimbabwe's distinguished elder statesmen and was an icon of the country's liberation struggle.

Manyika described Nkomo as a man committed to serving the national interest and upholding the unity of the nation.

Nkomo's life-long commitment to the liberation struggle and his unqualified service to the people of Zimbabwe after independence were evidence of his ability to see beyond personal and immediate self-serving interests, he said.

Manyika chronicled the service Nkomo rendered to the government in various capacities after independence, which includes, serving as minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Home Affairs and lately Lands and Land Reform.

In all these positions, Manyika said, Nkomo acquitted himself well.

"He emerges as an integral part of the founding fathers of the nation, a revered statesman, part of the unforgettable architects of the liberation and governance process and of the lineage of great liberators from the First to the Third Chimurenga," he said.

Nkomo becomes the fourth speaker of parliament in independent Zimbabwe.

The first speaker was Didymus Mutasa who served for two terms, followed by Nolan Makombe, Cyril Ndebele and outgoing speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa - Xinhuanet
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