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Nkomo reclaims his seat

Another self-exiled politician had better luck than Aquino. Joshua Nkomo, portly leader of Zimbabwe's opposition ZAPU party, had promised to return "like a lion, not a lamb," and last week he flew back to Harare after five months in London. In the airport lobby, a crowd of jubilant supporters danced and clapped, shouting high-pitched cries of welcome.

It was a short-lived triumph. Officials pointedly denied Nkomo the use of the airport's VIP lounge and whisked him into a customs office. Inspectors then searched his luggage for more than one hour, confiscating a color television set, a videotape of the musical My Fair Lady and some English honey. Next day Nkomo appeared in Zimbabwe's neoclassical national assembly to challenge a motion that, because he had missed 21 consecutive sessions, would have stripped him of his seat. Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's government had introduced the motion two weeks earlier.

As members of Mugabe's ruling ZANU party jeered, Nkomo insisted that he had fled the country in March only after troops loyal to Mugabe had ransacked his house and killed his driver. "I ran away from my grave," declared Nkomo. "I did not leave Zimbabwe for a safari in Europe." While Mugabe listened impassively, Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Eddison Zvobgo berated Nkomo for embarrassing the government, and ridiculed as "old hat" letters that Nkomo had sent from London proposing talks to solve Zimbabwe's internal problems. Then, to the surprise of most of the M.P.s present, Zvobgo announced that, because the government was not "vindictive or divisive," he would withdraw the controversial motion to unseat Nkomo.

The decision assured Nkomo of a continuing, although minor, role in Zimbabwe's politics. Still, the humiliating ordeal emphasized the opposition leader's waning influence. Mugabe and Nkomo had shared leadership of the seven-year guerrilla war that in 1980 ended white rule of the country, then known as Rhodesia. Since that time, however, Mugabe has systematically undermined his former partner's power. Earlier this year, government troops, most of them members of Mugabe's dominant Shona tribe, killed hundreds of Nkomo's Ndebele tribesmen in what was billed as a campaign against dissenters.

By tolerating Nkomo's return, Mugabe may be preparing to carry out plans to replace Zimbabwe's pluralistic system with one-party rule. If he banned Nkomo's party outright, Mugabe would, in effect, remove 20% of the country's population from any role in government. To achieve his goal peacefully, Mugabe may still have to cut a deal with his rival. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.