Mr Nkomo to go?

Press, 11 March 1983, Page 6

Mr Nkomo to go?

NZPA-Reuter Harare Senior lieutenants of the Zimbabwe Opposition leader, Mr Joshua Nkomo, had threatened to remove him from leadership of his Zimbabwe African People’s Union unless he returns from self-imposed exile, said the national news agency, ZIANA, yesterday. It quoted two unidentified Z.A.P.U. officials as saying the party’s rental committee would soon demand that Mr Nkomo either return home and retain the leadership or lose the post. Mr Nkomo appeared in neighbouring Botswana on Tuesday after three days in hiding in his home city of Bilawayo, Matabeleland’s capital.

The Home Affairs Minis-

ter. Dr Herbert Ushewokunze, said Mr Nkomo should have reported to the police in Bulawayo on Tuesday to be formally charged with breaking laws covering law and order, currency, and precious metals. Botswana, announcing Mr Nkomo's escape, said he would stay temporarily to consider the situation in his country. Mr Nkomo has accused the Prime Minister, Mr Robert Mugabe, of ordering his death. The charge has been denied by the Government. Zimbabwe has been plagued by violence which the authorities have blamed on former guerrillas who fought in Mr Nkomo’s Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army before Zimbabwe’s independ-

ence in 1980. Mr Nkomo has accused the sth Brigade of killing hundreds of civilians during an anti-rebel drive in Matabeleland. The Government says dissidents posing as Government troops have committed mass murder, rape, and looting in the province. Reuter correspondents were among journalists who reported seeing direct evidence of massacres — blamed by local people on Government troops — in Matabeleland. The Information Minister, Dr Nathan Shamuyarira, said last evening that the Government would deal ruthlessly with foreign correspondents it considered were spreading false rumours about the situation in the province.