Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) president Mqondisi Moyo has written a letter to Bulawayo City Council, giving the local authority a week to remove Mbuya Nehanda’s statue mounted at Mzilikazi Art Craft centre in Mzilikazi suburb in Bulawayo.
In his letter, Moyo wrote that Mbuya Nehanda’s statue should be replaced with that of a Ndebele hero or heroine. He wrote:
The presence of Mbuya Nehanda statue is of little significance, not only to the city but to Mzilikazi Art Centre situated in Mzilikazi suburb and named after King Mzilikazi.
There are quite a number of Ndebele significant people whose statues can be erected there. The likes of King Lobengula, Queen Lozikeyi and many more Ndebele heroes and heroines.
Mbuya Nehanda is a First Chimurenga heroine who was captured and hanged by the white settlers for her leading role in starting and directing the war.
Meanwhile, MRP is a secessionist movement whose objective is to create a breakaway state from Zimbabwe constituting the southern provinces of the country.
The majority of Zimbabweans will never brook any secessionist hogwash as dreamt by MRP. They stand advised to take heed of Cde Mutodi`s fired warning shots against them. Nehanda forbid any dissident nonsense in our motherland!
We dont cared about so-called majority. They can go to hell. Mthwakazi is our country and it shall be. What is Nehanda doing in King Mzilikazi Township? Stop provoking us. We have no problem you doing your Shona things in your country of Mashonaland, as Mugabe once advised Lord Soames in the 1980s about Nkomo not campaigning in “his country”. If you want war, bring it on. You think these are the 1980s of the apartheid support you got for undermining the ANC and MK!