(Harare)State media reports of Minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo stating that mythical mermaid animals are blocking construction work at dams in Gokwe and Mutare, are not true, the cabinet minister has said.
Minister Nkomo told ZimEye Tuesday morning that the Herald report was biased because he did not in any way state or suggest that he believes in the said mermaids.
“I saw the story in the Herald and I did not actually say the words that they said about me. All I reported was what I am getting from my staff… I think that what they need to appreciate is that the dam is complete; The

pumps are already there. All we want to do is to switch on. And my staff are telling me that they cannot switch on; when they switch on, water doesen’t go through the pipes because ‘the mermaids are blocking the pipes’.”
Sipepa-Nkomo said that he is not even involved in the consultations with the chiefs.
“…they have told me that they are in the process of speaking to the chiefs there that some rituals be done. I am not involved in that,” he said.
He added that he himself even voluntered to go to the dam and switch the pump on his own but the workers refused:
“I do not believe in it, at one time I said that they must take me there and I would do it myself … I don’t believe in that personally.They said you can go alone, we are not going to accompany you.
“… I do not believe in that personally that’s why I said I can go there and do it myself…,” he said.
Sipepa-Nkomo has said a similar situation occurred at Osborne Dam in Manicaland where Government ended up hiring white personnel to do the job but they also refused to undertake the project.
“We even hired whites thinking that our boys did not want to work but they also returned saying they would not return to work there again,” he said.